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THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ESSAYS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL
HISTORY FROM THE ACCESSION
OF DOMITIAN (81 A.D.) TO THE
RETIREMENT OF NICEPHORUS III.

(lo8l A.D.)

F. W. BUSSELL

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD
RECTOR OF SIZELAND

VOLUME II

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1910

CONTENTS

PART I

POLITICAL INFLUENCES MOULDING THE

NOMINAL AUTOCRACY OF THE C^SARS

(400-1080)

DIVISION A

FROM PRESIDENT TO DICTATOR-FROM DICTATOR
TO DYNAST

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Prince, the Senate, and the Civil Service in the

Eastern Empire (400-550) .... 3

II. The Failure of the Autocratic Administration (535-

565) 33

III. The Elements of Opposition under the Successors of

Justinian (565-618) 67

IV. Revival of Imperialism and of Military Prestige

under the Heraclians : Resentment and Final
Triumph of Civilian Oligarchy (620-700) . . 82

V. Period of Anarchy and Revival of Central Power

under Armenian and Military Influence . . 98

VI. Character and Aims of the Pretenders and Military
Revolts in the Ninth Century : Gradual Accept-
ance of Legitimacy (802-867) . . . . 127

DIVISION B
TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE OF LEGITIMACY

VII. Changes in the Administrative Methods of Autocracy
and in the Official World from the Regency
(Michael III.) 138

VIII. The Sovereign and the Government under Basil I.,

Leo VI., and Alexander (867-912) . . .178

vi CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

IX. The Sovereign and the Government during the

Tenth Century : the Struggle for the Regency

and Conflict of the Civil and Military Factions :

Rise of the Feudal Families . . . .195

X. "Legitimate" Absolutism, or Constantine IX. and

his Daughters (1025-1056) 256

DIVISION C

GRADUAL DISPLACEMENT OF THE CIVIL MONARCHY
BY FEUDALISM

XI. Conflict of the Two Orders 287

XII. Conflict of the Three Nicephori : The Misrule of
Borilas ; and the Revolt of the Families of Ducas
and Comnenus (1078-1081) .... 317

PART II

ARMENIA AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE
EMPIRE (520-1120)

THE PREDOMINANCE OF THE ARMENIAN ELEMENT

DIVISION A
GRADUAL ADMITTANCE (540-740)

General Introduction 335

I. Early History of Armenia down to the First Period

of Justinian I. (530-540) 343

II. Relations of Rome and Armenia from Justinian to

Heraclius (540-620) . . 357

III. The Dynasty of Heraclius and the Eastern Vassals . 371
IV. Under the Heracliads and Isaurians . . . -379

DIVISION B
PREDOMINATING INFLUENCE WITHIN (740-1040)

V. Armenians Within and Without the Empire from

Constantine V. to Theophilus (c. 740-840) . . 390

CONTENTS vii

CHAP. PAGE

VI. Armenians Within and Without the Empire from
Michael III. (842), to the end of Romanus I.
(944)— (840-940) 407

VII. Relations of Armenia and Armenians to the Empire,
from the Sole Reign of Constantine VII. (945)
to the Deposition of Michael V. (1042) — (940-
1040) 419

DIVISION C

ANNEXATION, RIVALRY, AND ALLIANCE WITHOUT

(1040-1120)

VIII. Armenia and the Empire from Constantine X. to the

Abdication of Michael VI. (1040-1057) . . 437

IX. Armenia and Western Asia from Isaac I. to the

Retirement of Nicephorus III. (1057-1081) . 450

X. Armenians under the Empire and in Cilicia during

the Reign of Alexius I. (1080-1120) . . . 465

APPENDIX

The Aristocracy and the Provincial Regiments ;
or Emperor, Senate, and Army during the
Great Anarchy (690-720) ..... 485

INDEX 497

[It should be noted that the Index is only to Volume II., and that
there is none to Volume I.]

ANALYSIS

PART I

POLITICAL INFLUENCES MOULDING THE
NOMINAL AUTOCRACY OF THE C^SARS

(400-1080)

DIVISION A

FROM PRESIDENT TO DICTATOR— FROM DICTATOR
TO DYNAST

CHAPTER I

THE PRINCE, THE SENATE, AND THE CIVIL SERVICE IN THE
EASTERN EMPIRE (400-550)

§ 1. Immobility of the Classical State : Reign of Law.

§ 2. The Civil Service and routine.

§ 3. Later decline of Civilian influence (600-800).

§ 4. Civilian pre-eminence in Vth century.

§ 5. The Theodosian academy for officials : function of the
Senate.

§ 6. Respect for precedent : autocracy suspicious of itself.

§ 7. The Russian Czardom : its limitations.

§ 8. Efforts to control the lesser agents (450-500) : wise influence
of senior officials in Senate.

§ 9. Official responsibility : no demand for popular control.

§ 10. Public opinion and nationality unknown : the middle-class
and the mercantile interest.

§ 11. Oligarchy under formula of Absolutism : careful training
for the Bureaux : State-service the sole career.

§ 12. Venality of office ; its excuse : legal fiction of Simony :
modern conception : " place of profit : " failure of monarchical
supervision.

x ANALYSIS

CHAPTER II

THE FAILURE OF THE AUTOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION
(535-565)

§ 1. The witness of contemporaries : (A) the Notary with a
grievance.

§ 2. The Prefecture degraded successively under (a) Con-
stantine, (/?) Arcadius, (y) Anastasius, (8) the Dardanians.

§ 3. Lydus as critic of the imperial policy : the ultimate ruin of
the office under John.

§ 4. (B) Procopius' " Secret History," evidence ruined by
hyperbole and inconsistency.

§ 5. Procopius as witness to (i.) domestic disorders : (a) civic
riot, (b) religious schism.

§ 6. Procopius as witness to (c] fiscal oppression, (d) impover-
ishment of realm, (e) penury and strait of the exchequer.

§ 7. (ii.) External policy : (a) military enterprise and extra-
vagance, prevalent misery and despair, the reign of Antichrist :
(b) defensive system : (i) invaders bribed : (2) chain of fortresses
built : (3) deficient support of Army : (iii.) internal policy : jealous
centralisation and curtailment of franchise: modern critics at
fault : Justinian's acts ; their excuse and motive : real character of
the emperor emerges clearly from Procopius' diatribe.

EVIDENCE FROM THE CONSTITUTIONS OF JUSTINIAN (535-565)
The Emperor and his Officials

§ 1. (C) Justinian judged by himself: (a) his conception of his
post ; universal supervision : (/?) difficulties of this claim ; the
bureaucrats out of hand ; their insolence and exactions : Justinian
reduces fees payable on institution to office, abolishes Vicars,
raises stipend and dignity of governors.

§ 2. (y) Counterpoise to mutinous hierarchy in (i) Bishops and
(2) magnates : (3) popular supervision never suggested : imperial
attitude to the people, cynical but indulgent: (i) costly displays
for gratification of urban mob ; (2) solicitude for countrymen ; (3)
wages of artisan : wisdom of these provisions : striking analogy
with modern Socialism.

§ 3. Special classes : (i) the Military.

§ 4. (2) The Monks.

§ 5. (3) The Senate.

§ 6. (4) Justinian's appeal to his people.

ANALYSIS xi

CHAPTER III

THE ELEMENTS OF OPPOSITION UNDER THE SUCCESSORS
OF JUSTINIAN (56*5-618)

(Being a continuation of" The Prince, the Senate, and the
Civil Service"}

§ 1. Opposition of privileged class to Liberal Imperialism.

§ 2. Dying avowal of Justin II. : reforming zeal powerless.

§ 3. Conciliation of local authorities : episcopate as a counter-
poise.

§4. Isolation of the emperor : no public support.

§ 5. No desire to restrict titular prerogative : private interest
and contempt for law.

§ 6. Complete failure of Maurice to restore order (600) : inter-
vention of the denies.

§ 7. Official tradition extinguished under Phocas.

CHAPTER IV

REVIVAL OF IMPERIALISM AND OF MILITARY PRESTIGE UNDER
THE HERACLIANS: RESENTMENT AND FINAL TRIUMPH OF
CIVILIAN OLIGARCHY (620-700)

§ 1. Position of Heraclius insecure : officials, army, provinces ;
their disaffection. ',

§ 2. Senate resumes influence : prerogative reasserted during
wars.

§ 3. Dependence (of Heracliads on Senate.

§ 4. Autocracy revived by Constans (650) : armies and priests :
the military revolt (670) : armies and priests.

§ 5. Imperial prestige under Constantine IV. (680) : Jus-
tinian II. hostile to official class (690) : imperial control of finance.

§ 6. Ministerial irresponsibility : revolt of magnates : over-
throw of central power.

§ 7- Triumph (700) of the civilian and official oligarchy.

CHAPTER V

PERIOD OF ANARCHY AND REVIVAL OF CENTRAL POWER
UNDER ARMENIAN AND MILITARY INFLUENCE

A. The Rejected Candidates (695-717)

§ 1. Benefits conferred by the Isaurians : perils of Elective
Monarchy.
§ 2. The revolutions of 695, 698.

xii ANALYSIS

§3. Vengeance of Justinian (restored 710): revolt of the
Armenian Vardan.

§ 4. Civilian's profit by shortsight of military conspirators : re-
prisals of army under Theodosius III.

§ 5. Striking success of Leo III. : support of Islam.

§ 6. This development analogous to earlier revolutions : Roman
tradition revived by plebeians and aliens.

B. Religious Reform and Political Reorganisation (717-775)

§ 1. Obscurity and bias of "Isaurian" Annalists: popular
approval at revival of Personal Rule.

§ 2. Some events in Leo's reign (717-740).

§ 3. Rebellion of Artavasdus : conflicting accounts of Con-
stantine V. (750).

§ 4. Summary of chief events (740-775).

§ 5. Indirect evidence entirely against this disappointing result.

§ 6. Recovery due to resumption of direct monarchic control,
especially in Finance.

C. The Emperor, the Church, and the aim of Government in

the Period of Iconoclasm (717-802)

§ 1. Barbarism of the empire after 550 : influence of priests.

§ 2. Orthodox opposition to Iconoclasm : Leo seeks to weaken
Church's influence.

§ 3. Anti-Clericalism and State-supremacy : value of counter-
poise to State-absolutism.

§ 4. The Protestants of Armenia against Hellenism : success
and reaction under Constantine VI. (c. 800).

CHAPTER VI

CHARACTER AND AIMS OF THE PRETENDERS AND MILITARY
REVOLTS IN THE NINTH CENTURY : GRADUAL ACCEPT-
ANCE OF LEGITIMACY (802-867)

§ 1. Suspension of dynastic principle : throne open to Armenian
adventurer.

§ 2. Socialist "Jacquerie" in Asia Minor (c. 820),

§ 3. without definite political aim : intolerant spirit of the age.

§ 4. Feuds of monk and soldier : emperors ignorant or hetero-
dox : weakening of regimental spirit.

§ 5. Revolt of Persian contingent at Sinope : close of the Era of
" Pronunciamentos."

§ 6. Restoration of Image-worship : intolerant dread of heretics.

§ 7. Paulician persecution largely political : successful revival of
central prestige (c. 840).

ANALYSIS xiii

DIVISION B
TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE OF LEGITIMACY

CHAPTER VII

CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE METHODS OF AUTOCRACY
AND IN THE OFFICIAL WoRLD FROM THE REGENCY
(MICHAEL III.)

A. Economic and Social Causes determining the Development

§ 1. A new departure : Regency and Legitimacy : personal
monarchy in abeyance.

§ 2. Palace-government : the people press the claims of undis-
guised Autocracy.

§ 3. Obscure economic causes at work : (i) change in population ;

§ 4. (2) Agricultural changes ; (a) communal villages : encroach-
ment of the Magnate.

§ 5. (2, b) Private estates.

§ 6. First definite reforms (c. 740) democratic in character.

§ 7. Reaction (c. 850) in interest of Church and Magnate :
soldiers' fiefs absorbed.

§ 8. Estates of officials : struggle against encroachment of
grandees.

§ 9. Attempt to restrict Monastic property (c. 965).

B. The Government and the Landed Interest

§ 10. Economic fallacies of Byzantium ; Bullionism : land,
unique investment for capital.

§ 11. Lecapenus (c. 930) and the landed gentry : Nicephorus
(c. 965).

§ 12. (3) Legislation of" Isaurians" against Plutocracy.

§ 13. Problems of State and Capital : the rich kept aloof from
affairs under earlier empire.

§ 14. Legal reforms of " Isaurians" repealed by 900 : mercy in
the Code : (4) revival of Ecclesiastical influence : (5) revival of
private wealth.

C. The Sovereign and the Governing Class under Michael III.

§ 15. Family of Theodora the Armenian : emperors always wed
subjects.

§ 16. The Regency: character of Michael III.
§ 17. Cynical enlightenment in Church and State.
§ 18. Murder of Caesar Bardas and of Michael III.
§ 19. Accession of Basil further strengthens Armenian influence.

xiv ANALYSIS

CHAPTER VIII

THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNMENT UNDER BASIL I.,
LEO VI., AND ALEXANDER (867-912)

§ 1. Transfer of throne to the " Arsacid," 867, supported by
official class.

§ 2. Domestic reforms and foreign policy of Basil.

§ 3. His family : relaxation of moral restraint : secular and
imperial Patriarchs.

§ 4. Byzantine public service free from conditions of nationality:
rise of the great Eastern families : perils of divided command.

§ 5. Abortive conspiracies against Basil and his son (870-910).

§ 6. Leo VI. under Stylian and Samonas : remarkable Saracen
favourite.

§ 7. Wasteful ease of the Court (c. 900) : disregard of precedent
and due promotion.

§ 8. Defects and merits of the new pacific Conservatism
(Finlay).

CHAPTER IX

THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNMENT DURING THE TENTH
CENTURY : THE STRUGGLE FOR THE REGENCY AND CON-
FLICT OF THE ClVIL AND MILITARY FACTIONS : RlSE OF

THE FEUDAL FAMILIES

A. Ducas and Phocas to Lecapenus (912-920)

§ 1. The Palace-Ministry under Alexander : the Bulgarian peril
and the Council of Regents.

§ 2. Popular demand for a strong man : failure and death of
Ducas.

§ 3. Zoe's Regency and vigorous anti- Bulgarian designs.

§ 4. Zoe's policy thwarted by dissensions of military leaders.

§ 5. Competition of Phocas and Lecapenus.

§ 6. Success and rapid promotion of Lecapenus : separation of
the imperial functions ; active Regent and legitimate Recluse.

B. Romanus and his Sons (919-945)

§ 1. Family of Romanus I. : popular Legitimism.

§ 2. Conspiracies against Romanus I. : public indifference at his
overthrow.

§ 3. His diplomatic conduct of foreign affairs : Bulgarian
alliance.

§ 4. Curcuas and his long control of the Eastern frontier.

§ 6. Parental supervision of Romanus.

ANALYSIS xv

C. The Regency in Abeyance (945-963) and Restored (963-976)

§ 1. The Great Chamberlains : Bringas and the two Basils.

§ 2. Literary culture and amiable character of Constantine VII.

§ 3. His ministers, cabinet, gifts to officials, diplomacy.

§4. Romanus II. and his advisers: the new Regency of
Theophano.

§ 5. The East and the family of Phocas.

§ 6. Duel of Bringas and Nicephorus : Patriarch's decisive
action.

§7- Nicephorus II. takes personal command of the war: his
valour, unpopularity, and political errors.

§ 8. John Zimisces and the settlement of Bulgaria.

§ 9. John and the Eastern campaigns.

§ 10. Suspicious death of Zimisces (976) : hidden conflict in the
Roman Empire.

D. Abortive attempts to revive the Regency: Personal Monarchy
triumphs over both Departments, Civil and Military (990-
1025)

§ 1. The young Augusti : revolt of Sclerus (976) : Asia Minor
detached from the empire.

§ 2. Defeats of the Imperialist forces : Phocas (restored to
favour) overthrows Sclerus.

§ 3. Military annoyance at Basil's initiative : revolt of Phocas.

§ 4. Extinction of revolt by sudden death of Phocas : amnesty
and high honours to Sclerus.

§ 5. Personal government of Basil II. (990-1025) : true Caesarian
ideal : rare phenomenon ; effective control of one.

§ 6. Overthrow of New Bulgaria in the West.

§ 7. Masterful spirit and reserve of Basil : change in the methods
of government.

CHAPTER X

"LEGITIMATE" ABSOLUTISM, OR CONSTANTINE IX. AND HIS
DAUGHTERS (1025-1056)

A. John the Paphlagonian, or the Cabal of the Upstarts
(1025-1056)

§ 1. Reign of Constantine IX. : his indolent and capricious
temper.

§ 2. Romanus Argyrus and his Paphlagonian bailiff.

§ 3. Catastrophe and humiliation in the East : lieutenants
retrieve imperial failure (1030).

§ 4. The hasty marriage of Michael the Paphlagonian.

xvi ANALYSIS

§ 5. The artxieties of Michael IV. : adoption of an heir.
§ 6. Loyal feeling towards dynasty under Michael V. : indignant
populace storms the palace and reinstates princesses.

B. Central Policy and Pretender 3 Aim during the Reign of
Constantine X. (1042-1054)

§ 1. Zoe's choice of a third husband : anomalous relations ot
Monomachus and Scleraena.

§ 2. Usual series of ineffective revolts : Magniac's attempt :
various futile plots.

§ 3. Rebellion of Thornic and the troops of Macedonia.

§ 4. End of Thornic : excuses for the military party.

§ 5. Ludicrous palace-intrigues : clemency of Constantine X.

§ 6. The Ministers, Lichudes and John : death of Constantine X.
(1054.)

§ 7- Character and scope of Psellus' contemporary chronicler.

§ 8. Indolence, courage, and favouritism of Constantine X.

§ 9. His merits underrated.

DIVISION C

GRADUAL DISPLACEMENT OF THE CIVIL MONARCHY
BY FEUDALISM

CHAPTER XI
CONFLICT OF THE Two ORDERS

A. The Military Protest and the Counter- Revolution : the Peace-
Party and the Soldiers (Comnenus and Diogenes'), 1057-1067

§ 1. Theodora and Michael VI. (creature of a faction).

§ 2. The Warriors slighted by Prince and Premier : retire to
Asia Minor (1057).

§ 3. Hasty insurgence and failure of Bryennius.

§ 4. Catacalon joins Comnenian mutineers : futile negotiations
with Michael VI.

§ 5. Triumph of the Comneni : origin of the family.

§ 6. Strong clerical opposition to Isaac I. : his abdication.

§ 7. Civilian influence predominant under Constantine XI. :
misplaced energy and chivalry.

§ 8. Emperors' brothers during Xlth cent.: the two Johns : dis-
grace and sudden elevation of Diogenes (1067).

B. The Military Regency and the Ccesar John : Beginnings of
Latin Intervention: the Misrule of Nicephoritzes (1067-1078)

§ 1. Novel influences : Varangians and Latin soldiers of fortune.
§ 2. Civilian reaction after defeat of Manzikert : Romanus
deposed by Caesar John.

ANALYSIS xvii

§ 3. Ministers and generals under Michael VII.: Nicephoritzes :
Russell revolts and captures Cassar John, and proclaims him
emperor : seized by Turks, Russell regains his freedom,

§ 5. But is reduced by Alexius : movement in the Balkans : dis-
appointment of Bryennius, who prepares a revolt,

§ 6. And assumes the purple : the Capital invested and relieved.

§ 7. Strange situation of the empire in Europe and Asia (1078).

CHAPTER XII

CONFLICT OF THE THREE NICEPHORI: THE MISRULE OF BORI
LAS; AND THE REVOLT OF THE FAMILIES OF DUCAS AND
COMNENUS (1078-1081)

§ 1. Union of Alexius with the house of Ducas : insurrection of
Eastern troops under Botaneiates.

§ 2. Abdication of Michael VII. : Borilas enters the palace and
takes vengeance on Nicephoritzes.

§3. Weakness and extravagance of Nicephorus III.: Alexius
ends the revolt of Bryennius at Calabrya.

§ 4. Revolt of Basilacius in Illyria : misgivings of Alexius, once
more victorious.

§ 5. Restless state of European and Asiatic provinces : futile
rebellion of Constantine XII. : like earlier Slavonic immigrants,

§ 6. The Turks penetrate into Asia Minor : " Nicephorus V."
founds a Turkoman principality.

§ 7. Alexius declines to serve against him : West Asia indepen-
dent and aggressive.

§ 8. The Ministers plot against Comnenians : Alexius invested :
sack of the capital and resignation of Botaneiates (1081).

PART II

ARMENIA AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE
EMPIRE (520-1120)

THE PREDOMINANCE OF THE ARMENIAN ELEMENT

DIVISION A

GRADUAL ADMITTANCE (540-740)
General Introduction

§ 1. Interest of viiith century : Eastern Dynasties of Rome
and Armenia.

§ 2. Early Armenian history : Arsacids and conversion of
Tiridat (c. 300) : decay of Roman influence in viith century.
VOL. II. b

xviii ANALYSIS

§ 3. Armenian Nonconformity, obstacle to union : not to entry
of Armenian into Roman service.

§ 4. Armenian pretenders and sovereigns (700-8 50) at Byzantium.
§ 5. Summary of conclusions.

EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA DOWN TO THE FIRST PERIOD
OF JUSTINIAN I. (530-540)

§ 1. Armenia in the new expert service of Rome.

§ 2. Christianity, source both of alliance and of estrangement.

§ 3. Origin and early history of the Armenians : rivals of
Assyria : the Arsacid dynasty (150 B.C.-20O A.D.).

§ 4. Romans and Persians in Armenia : independence ex-
tinguished (385) : the religious difficulty (400-500).

§ 5. Cabades the Socialist renews the war with Rome.

§ 6. Feudal policy of Justin (520), and eastern campaigns of
Belisarius.

§ 7. Cause of Justinian's failure in East and West : fiscal system.

RELATIONS OF ROME AND ARMENIA FROM JUSTINIAN TO
HERACLIUS (540-6*20)

§ 1. Loyal service of Armenia to the empire : in the East and
Italy : the Vassal State of Lazic and sub-infeudation.

§ 2. Armenian valour in Africa : first Armenian plot : recall and
conspiracy of Artaban (548).

§ 3. Persarmenia under religious persecution joins the empire.

§ 4. Doubtful issue of the quarrel over Persarmenia (575-580).

§ 5. Tiberius' offer to resign Roman claims to Persarmenia :
mutinous state of Persian and Roman armies alike.

§ 6. Chosroes dethroned and restored by Rome in concert with
Armenian nobles : welcome peace broken by the murder of
Maurice.

§ 7. Chosroes' war of vengeance against Rome : mutinous inde-
pendence of Taron.

Ill
THE DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS AND THE EASTERN VASSALS

a. To the Death of Constant III. (620-668)

§ 1. Heraclius' attempt to secure religious conformity in
Armenia.

§ 2. Ambiguous position of Armenia between the two powers :
advent of the Arabs : patriotic resistance under the Vahans.

ANALYSIS xix

§ 3. Nationalism ruined by feudal paralysis sack of Dovin (640):
steady northward advance of the Arabs (640:^^.).

§4. After the visits of Constans III. Nationalists aim at
autonomy.

§ 6. Waning of Roman influence : Armenia tributary to caliph.

IV
UNDER THE HERACLIADS AND ISAURIANS

ft. From Constantine IV. to the Death of Leo III. (670-740)

§ 1. Revolt of Armenian princes in East and West : Sapor and
Mejej (668).

§ 2. Recovery of Armenia under suzerainty to caliph : secret
compact of Justinian II. and the caliph : removal of the Mardaites.

§ 3. Troubled state of Armenia after the visit of Justinian II. :
Arab inroads and removal of the capital.

§ 4. Terrible vengeance of caliph (700) against Romanising
party : Armenian exiles flock into Roman service.

§ 5. Early adventures of Conon in the East : two Armenian
emperors ; problems (i) of Armenian settlements and (2) origin of
Leo III.

§ 6. Unqualified submission to the caliph (from 710).

DIVISION B
PREDOMINATING INFLUENCE WITHIN (740-1040)

ARMENIANS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE EMPIRE FROM
CONSTANTINE V. TO THEOPHILUS (c. 740-840)

§ 1. Revolt of Artavasdus and transplantation of Constantine V. :
Armenian monopoly of military command.

§ 2. Vigorous policy of Harun ; constant duel at Byzantium
between Armenian generals and Orthodox reaction.

§ 3. Treason of Tatzates, owing to hate of courtiers : violent
Armenian and military opposition to Images (785): first deposition
of Constantine VI. frustrated by the Armenian troops.

§4. Constantine VI. estranges his Armenian supporters: his
removal ; plots of the sons of Constantine V. : peril of the capital
and removal of Irene by the Stauracian party.

§ 5. Exceptional post created for Armenian general in Asia :
his discontent and revolt: his Armenian officer Leo joins Nice-
phorus : Armenian conspirator only overcome by Armenian aid.

xx ANALYSIS

§ 6. A false Constantine VI. supported by Harun : Armenian
ministers and conspirators : success and elevation of Leo the
Armenian (813).

§ 7. Serious menaces to the State under Michael II. : Armenian
help and alliance indispensable to Rome.

§ 8. Services to the empire of Armenia under Theophilus ;
Alexis and Theophobus : Armenia itself attached to caliphate.

ARMENIANS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE EMPIRE FROM MICHAEL
III. (842), TO THE END OF ROMANUS I. (944)— (840-940)

§ 1. Roman expeditions to north-east ; Bardas and Theoctistus :
rise and elevation of Basil the Armenian : Basil invested by the
new Bagratid monarch.

§ 2. Notable Armenian families emerge ; Maleinus, Curcuas,
Phocas, Argyrus.

§ 3. Intimate and tactful relations of Leo VI. with Armenia :
expansion of empire towards East.

§ 4. Multiplication of petty sovereignties in Armenia in decay of
caliphate.

§5. Appeal of Armenian king to empire (911): consistent Im-
perialism of Armenian royalty : nobles and people thwart alliance.

§ 6. Submission of the Taronites to the empire (c. 930) : ex-
tension of Roman influence by diplomacy and by war.

§ 7. Universal suzerainty of Rome in Armenia : exploits and
success of Curcuas the Armenian.

VII

RELATIONS OF ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS TO THE EMPIRE,
FROM THE SOLE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE VII. (945) TO
THE DEPOSITION OF MICHAEL V. (1042)— (940-1040)

§ 1. Religious differences separate Armenia from Rome : rise
and elevation of Zimisces the Armenian.

§ 2. Zimisces and the Crusading Ideal ; his eastern exploits and
close relations with Armenian royalty.

§ 3. Armenian actors and influence in rebellion of Sclerus (976):
displeasure of Basil and outbreak of religious persecution : Armenia
suffers from the Moslem and is reconciled to Basil II.

§ 4. Legend of Armenian origin of Samuel the Shishmanid :
Armenian officers of Basil II. (990): Talk bequeathed to Rome ;
Basil II. removes religious disabilities.

§5. The Great Durbar of 991; Basil II. receives fealty of
Armenian kings : valiant resistance in Vasparacan to Seljuks :
Sennacherib of Vasparacan surrenders to the empire : feudal
fiefs within the empire.

ANALYSIS xxi

§6. Discontent and rebellion in Georgia (1022); proposal to
surrender kingdom of Ani to Rome : curious delay in completing
the transfer; varying accounts: anarchy and treason in Ani:
Michael IV. (1040) prepares to enforce the claim : furious resist-
ance of Bahram the Nationalist.

§ 7- Bahram raises Gagic, last King of Ani (1042) : straightfor-
ward dealing of the emperors : relations of the Armenian kingdom
to the empire (c. 1042).

§ 8. Close connection of Iberia with empire under Romanus III.
(11034) : Armenian governors for the empire : principality of
Tarsus.

DIVISION C

ANNEXATION, RIVALRY, AND ALLIANCE WITHOUT
(1040-1120)

VIII

ARMENIA AND THE EMPIRE FROM CONSTANTINE X. TO THE
ABDICATION OF MICHAEL VI. (1040-1057)

§ 1. Voluntary cession of King of Ani (c. 1045) ; exploits of
Catacalon, Roman governor, against emir of Dovin.

§ 2. The Seljuk advance : its significance in world-history.

§ 3. First pillage of Vasparacan : division in the Roman
councils ; they wait for Liparit : (feudal character of Liparit).

§ 4. Defeat of Liparit ; negotiations for peace with Rome : the
Patzinaks create a diversion in Europe ; Eastern armies weakened :
strange trio of generals against Patzinaks (1050).

§ 5. The courtiers charge Armenian princes of Arkni with dis-
loyalty : curious plot to annihilate Armenian " Huguenots" : Nor-
mans posted in East, owing to distrust : attack of Togrul fiercely
renewed (1053) but baffled : Catacalon, Duke of Antioch.

§ 6. Fresh Seljuk attack ; treason of the son of Liparit : pillage
of Chaldia : Emir of Akhlat extinguishes revolt of Hervey the
Norman.

ARMENIA AND WESTERN ASIA FROM ISAAC I. TO THE
RETIREMENT OF NICEPHORUS III. (1057-1081)

§ 1. Catacalon and Armenian military faction again in power
(1057): Armenian influence on Rome: desultory raids of Seljuks
with varying success (1057-59).

§ 2. Religious and political dissensions of Armenia and the
empire : Armenian alliance with infidel and Seljuk advance : fall
of the Principalities of Sivas and Arkni.

xxii ANALYSIS

§ 3. Serious aggressive policy of new Sultan (1062) ; capture and
sack of old Armenian capital, Ani : secret cession of last inde-
pendent state to Rome : further range of Seljuks unhindered.

§ 4. Armenian disaffection : treason of the captain Amerticius :
evil effects of civilian parsimony : no adequate Imperial forces on
Eastern frontier.

§ 5. Lukewarm support extended to Romanus IV. : his cam-
paigns and Armenian officers : suspicion of Sivas princes :
catastrophe of Manzikert (1071).

§ 6. Scanty results of Manzikert (1071): Michael VII. still receives
cession of land and awards principalities : Ani, content with Seljuk
rule, refuses to restore royalty : the interval used by Rome for
domestic sedition : triumph of the Military faction over House of
Ducas (1078).

§ 7. Revolt of Armenian Basilacius in Macedonia : revolutions
at Antioch : seizure by Armenian Philaret : events in Armenian
kingdom of Cilicia.

§ 8. Disappearance of natives in Armenia : foundation of inde-
pendent kingdom of Cilicia : the Patriarchal Sees.

§9. Western migration of Oriental Christians: Asia Minor
overrun : Cilicia an outpost of Armenian nationality and Imperial
tradition.

ARMENIANS UNDER THE EMPIRE AND IN CILICIA DURING THE
REIGN OP ALEXIUS I. (1080-1120)

§ 1. Anomalous position of Empire under Comnenians : fluc-
tuating success of Seljuks in Asia Minor, severed from East by
Roman territory : strange exploits of Philaret, Duke of Antioch.

§ 2. Adroit diplomacy of Alexius ; jealousy and divisions of
Seljukids : Armenians high in the Imperial service.

§ 3. Mild rule of Malek in Armenia proper : conciliation of
Armenians: his wise reign followed by civil strife (1092-1097).

§ 4. Seljuks at Nice : Armenian plot against Alexius ; the Duchy
of Trebizond: general state of East on the arrival of the
Crusaders.

§ 5. Reconquest of Nice ; Latin replace Armenian principalities :
Latins fraternise with Armenians : their services to the Crusaders.

§ 6. Rivals to Seljuks : Latins at Antioch and Edessa ; the
Danishmand: Imperial recovery in East, expedition to Cilicia,
1103, 1104: curious treatment of the Roman general.

§ 7. War of Seljuks and Armenia of Cilicia : amity of Armenia
and Tancred of Antioch: Boemund becomes Vassal of the
empire : (changes in Roman administration : the Duchy).

§ 8. Another Armenian conspiracy : desultory fighting in East
between Franks and Armenians : difficulties of Rum : Alexius
checks an inroad from Khorasan.

ANALYSIS xxiii

§ 9. Armenian sovereigns and the earthquake : Baldwin of
Edessa reduces the Armenian principalities : state of Asia Minor,
1 120, restless policy of Rum: homage to Alexius ; his death.

APPENDIX

THE ARISTOCRACY AND THE PROVINCIAL REGIMENTS ; OR
EMPEROR, SENATE, AND ARMY DURING THE GREAT
ANARCHY (690-720)

§ 1. Predominance of the provincial regiments: the empire now
Asiatic.

§ 2. Permanent Thematic armies : revolutions of 695, 698.

§3. Justinian restored: revolutions of 711, 713: shortsight of
military conspirators.

§ 4. Mutinous troops and revolt under Theodosius III.

§ 5. Civilian capital defenceless before new military concen-
tration.

§ 6. Armeniacs and Anatolics upset Obsician influence (716,
717).

INDEX TO VOL. II.

PART I

POLITICAL INFLUENCES MOULDING THE

NOMINAL AUTOCRACY OF THE C^SARS

(400-1080)

VOL. II.

DIVISION A

FROM PRESIDENT TO DICTATOR— FROM
DICTATOR TO DYNAST

CHAPTER I

THE PRINCE, THE SENATE, AND THE CIVIL SERVICE
IN THE EASTERN EMPIRE (400-550)

§ 1. WE approach the central problem of this entire Immobility of
period in an inquiry into the function and the aims
of the Civil Service under the empire of the East. 0J LOW.
A supplementary inquiry might indeed discuss (a) the
composition and dignities of the Byzantine Senate,
and (b) the strict and well-defined provinces of the
various civil departments. It was the chief endeavour
of the princes in the era of reconstruction to assure
the central control over all other branches of the
administration. Constantine, while recognising the
independent sanction of the Church, seeks to pre-
serve its integrity and unanimous belief as a valid
instrument of government in the new State. The
profession of arms constituted a distinct career, and
was open to the sturdy foreigner. The Civil Service,
the special creature of the imperial system, looking
to Hadrian and Severus Alexander as its chief
patrons, was now still further reduced to order,
method, and routine ; in the education and training
of future officials, in the regular stipend, promotion,
and pension, which followed and repaid devoted
service in some field of the administration. It is
often remarked that the classical ideal is a stationary
rather than a progressive society. "That State,"
says Aristotle, " is the wisest and best administered

4 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Immobility of which gives most to the Law and least to the per-
^tate^Re^n sona^ w^ °* tne ruler-" A religious sanction was
of Law. invoked to secure legislation from the tampering
interference of reformers ; the legendary hero who
produced the uniform and consistent code, was him-
self divine, or was at least inspired by a god. When
the secular and critical spirit looked with cool inquiry
on this pretension, Plato sought by religious fiction or
dogmatic illusion to bind his neophytes to a blind
obedience. In effect, every citizen is to be born in a
Hellenic community with a rope round his neck,
such as was worn by the proposer to deliver Salamis.
The legislation of Rome opened and expanded from
a narrow tribal code, under the genial influence
of Imperial, Christian, Stoic, and Juristic doctrine.
The Ecumenical State could repose safely on no
other foundation but the law of nature and of
reason ; and it was a commonplace of the time (as
of many subsequent schools of shallow enlighten-
ment) that the two were identical. While we are
following the restless wanderings of Hadrian, the
ascetic musings of Marcus, the wild vagaries of
Commodus, or the pitiless repression of Severus, we
are apt to forget the quiet but systematic justification
for the imperial system, which the Jurists proposed.
The equity, which should be the basis of the
world-wide State, as it realised the idle dream or
academic thesis of dialectical and abstentionist
Stoicism, was to be found under the empire, and
was the unalterable pivot of the whole. Some indeed
might regret the methods adopted to secure freedom
and equality, — man's original condition, dictated by
the powerful law of nature and the approving sanc-
tion of his own heart ; or might regard the emperor
as the unique means of attaining and preserving
a " golden age." The content of this law was con-
stant and inviolable, and could not be altered when
once unfolded before mankind. To it the edicts of
princes must conform, and there was abroad some

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 5

vague notion on the right of insurrection, in case Immobility of
the sovereign defied or contradicted it. The Decla- *£* Cl
mations of the elder Seneca, and a hundred lesser of Law.
passages in first century writers, extol this law of
nature above the partial and transient enactment of
princes or peoples.

§ 2. We must remember that the whole tendency The Civil

of the reconstructive age (28=5-337) was to save the Service and

& V O JJ// routine.

central power from alien encroachment and its own

weakness. The ideal was not the will of the emperor
for the time being, but the permanent and abiding
policy of the State. Everything hitherto tentative
and indecisive in outline, a compromise of intentional
vagueness, was brought forth into open daylight and
given sharply cut features, often rude, blunt, and
unsuspected. The autocracy no longer depended
upon Rome ; why then should the empty and mis-
leading pretence be maintained that from the Senate
emanated all power in the State ? The law was by
then made clear and uniform ; and the next three
centuries will see the codifying process at work,
which is to place the maxims and principles of
government above the reach of individual caprice.
Similarly, the agents of government were marshalled
in order ; the various characters and duties set forth
in distinct relief, quite as much in the desire for
swiftness and uniformity as in anxious apprehension.
The Civil Service attains important proportions, and
by a curious freak, the sworn ministers and lieu-
tenants of Caesar are summed up and collected, at
least by the reign of Theodosius II., in the ancient
and honourable title of Senators. Between the
ancient house and the imperial agents there had
always existed a standing feud ; the aristocrat tended
to become an irresponsible amateur, the praetor or
lieutenant of Caesar was careful and business-like as
under the eye of the master. But the centrifugal
force was now conquered ; there is but one order of
public servants, directly amenable to the emperor.

6 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

The Civil We are dealing in this section only with the Civil
Service and Service of the Eastern realm ; and we may here well

routine.

start with this identification. These officers form a
hierarchy with definite training, precise duties, and
regular precedence ; the Senate, still the informal
council of assessors which custom rather than law
bade the magistrate consult, was composed of the
chief acting and past ministers of the Crown. And
it was the aim and object of the reconstructive age
in adapting the scheme of government to its new
and unexpected needs, to make its method fixed and
its procedure certain. This fixity of outline, as we
saw, is a heritage from the past ; the Hellenic
idealists conceived it possible, like modern prophets
of Utopia, to reach or to recur to a perfect and
immobile condition of society, in which reform and
improvement would have no further use. To us
who recognise the helplessness of man's judgment
before inexorable laws, and the cyclic development
which forbids us to cherish hopes of an eternal equi-
librium, it seems incredible that these Illyrian or
Pannonian sovereigns, themselves darting out of
nothingness into dazzling light, could have imagined
that it lay within their competence to stereotype and
to crystallise mankind. " A spirit of conservatism,"
says Finlay, " persuaded the legislators of the Roman
Empire that its power could not decline, if each
order and profession of its citizens was fixed irrevoc-
ably in the sphere of their own peculiar duties by
hereditary succession." We are about to examine
the application of this principle in the administrative
sphere, and to inquire into the influence of this new
body, as it slowly built up its policy and tradition to
overmaster the moment's caprice in the ruler, or
unhappily succumbed to the rudimentary instincts of
self-seeking and greed.

Later decline § 3. The needs of the empire were twofold :
iLflwnce1 domestic order and guard against foreign inroads.
(600-800). Sooner or later the most carefully devised plan for

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 7

securing civil supremacy was destined to fail. The Later decline

artificially protected area, with its also artificial °f Chilian

. J . ' . influence

governing class (never, as in other countries, a domi- (600-800).

nant caste), frequently had to postpone internal
reform to the pressing need of military defence. I am
inclined to believe that the years 400-800, from
Theodosius II. to Nicephorus I., witness the zenith
and decline of the civilian spirit, of that predomi-
nance of the bureau, which the sturdy soldier
Diocletian established, in the vain hope that unarmed
and peaceful officials would remain always in dutiful
obedience to the sovereign. I would suggest the
following division of years in an attempt to estimate
the vicissitudes of its influence.

(a) From the New University of Theodosius II. to
the end of Justinian (430-565), during which the
collective Civil Service represented by the Senate,
acquired by merit and preserved with success a
commanding position in the State, (b) From Justin II.
to the solemn compact of Heraclius (565—618).
Here we see emerging the elements of opposition to
the vigilant control of the prince, — the interest in
most things civilian and the emoluments of the notary
and the advocate have declined, and while society
rushes blindly into superstition and barbarity, the
advisers and agents of the sovereign do their best to
thwart his well-meant reforms and exempt themselves
(like a feudal " noblesse ") from the uniform opera-
tion of law. (c) From Heraclius to the deposition
of Justinian II. (618-695). Here the conflict of the
official class with the monarchy takes a different
complexion in an altered age ; the old civil hierarchy
breaks down, and in many regions of the empire
becomes extinct; for since 618 two new and im-
portant factors have been admitted into partnership,
with independent right, the Church and the Army :
and the official class of " Senators " (persecuted, as
Bury well says, in the " drastic but inept " measures
of this latter sovereign) bear a different stamp to the

8 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Later decline disciplined agents of his greater namesake, and have
i{flwncen something of the selfish independence of the feudal
(600-800}. nobles, something, too, of the crafty greed of an
Eastern vizier, not a little of the genuine (if mis-
placed) piety of the devotee. (W) From the elevation
of Leontius to the accession of Leo III. (695—7 1 7) ; a
period in which the permanent armies of Asia Minor
combat not indeed with an effective monarch, but
with the officials of the capital, who, like a Venetian
oligarchy, attempt to engross political power and
secrete their gains behind the majestic figure of a
puppet Caesar, (e) From the accession of Leo to
the downfall of Irene, the epoch known as Icono-
clastic and Isaurian (717-802). Here the personal
monarchy of Constantine again emerges, and the
civilian interest has to submit to military law ; a " state
of siege," as it were, is proclaimed, and sharper and
sterner measures are adopted against the ascetic
celibate and the corrupt functionary : it is the victory
of the " Themes/' of the army, and, above all, of the
Asiatic spirit, which, assuming in distant Armenia
the austere lineaments of ancient Rome, revives the
falling State and ensures not only Byzantium but
the rest of Europe ; the civilian body dwindles in
importance and esteem, the Senate deferentially rati-
fies the sovereign's decrees in formal " beds of
justice " ; the palace, the camp, the monastery are
the centres of influence and interest.
Civilian pre-' § 4. We will confine ourselves at present to the

first Period (c- 43°~565 A-D-)> which owing to the
remarkable change in the energy and fortunes of
Justinian's old age might well be shortened by some
dozen years. Here Senate and Emperor co-operate ;
the interest of ruler and subject are identical, and
mature merit, passing through the useful lessons of
a private lot, arrives leisurely and by no sudden
leap at sovereign power. There is no definite anti-
imperial feeling among the ruling class, though we
detect dire presages of the coming conflict. For

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 9

the difficulty of our problem lies in this ; we have Civilian pre-
abundant evidence of the wise influence, the con- e™nence m

tinuous policy, the steady pre-eminence of the civilian
element in the fifth century ; and especially in the
long and impersonal reign of Theodosius II. Yet
we do not lack traces of selfishness in greater and
minor agents alike, of the resentment roused by
imperial firmness, of the claims of rank to exempt
from liabilities. Now in the Roman Empire it is
not possible to fall back upon the facile distinction
between a military and feudal nobility, and the
sovereign's agent expressly created to coerce them.
Elsewhere we find the same political development ;
the king and his band bursting gaily into a rich
and smiling country and dividing the spoils ; the
king, drawn over against himself into popular sym-
pathies, curbing the petty tyrannies of the lords, and
gradually (as Plato saw) assuming the character of
a popular champion ; hence the various offices in-
vented to curtail local power in the common interest
of prince and people, " comites " and " palatines " to
watch " dukes " ; " missi " and " gastald " to stand up
for the centre against the circumference. But, in
spite of the long survival and certain influence of
great families in Greece and Rome — in spite of the
dynastic tendency from the very outset underlying
the scheme of Augustus — birth never constitutes by
itself a claim to distinction or power among the
classic nations. Nobility was of rank not of blood ;
and although nature will again and again " recur "
to combat or reinforce civic Idealism, the theory
survives to the end of our period that only standing
in the service of the State gave rank, title, or prece-
dence. Thus we have some of that Teutonic sub-
jectivity, the feudal baron, sometimes the defender,
sometimes the oppressor of the district ; and the
commonwealth never surrendered a large measure
of its duties to private enterprise. (For, in passing,
it may be explained why England is to the present

10 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Civilian pre- moment an aristocratic country: it is because a very
£reat Part of the duties elsewhere exercised by paid
functionaries of the centre fall to the gratuitous
discharge of those whose birth summons them to
certain office and functions ; who are trained in that
anomalous yet successful school of English educa-
tion to be the natural leaders of a great community,
or the impartial rulers of less civilised races. Else-
where we have intimated that the attitude of such
a class is always largely hostile to the government
and loyal to the titular sovereign ; for it cares little
for the favours of the former, and for its standard
of public rectitude and devotion it borrows nothing
of its tradition, invokes none of its definite laws ;
but it values the lightest honour which the latter
bestows, an ample reward ; lastly, it depends, as the
nobility must in modern times, upon the esteem of
the people at large, also animated by a general feel-
ing of distrust of those anonymous central cabinets
where power resides to-day, and by a vague terror of
State autocracy, never so dangerous as when cloaked
under democratic forms.) To the bad and to the
good side of feudalism alike the empire was a
stranger. The State was impersonal ' ; subjectivity was
ruthlessly crushed or forced in the imperial figures
to act an impersonal role. It was constantly at-
tempting to reduce independent departments under
the central sway ; Diocletian did not rest until he
had secured the submission of army and adminis-
tration to the central unit, which, like Schelling's
Absolute, was at the same moment both and neither.
It would be an error to assert that the system strove for
logical symmetry like a modern paper constitution.
But it developed, as do all ideal (that is, artificial)
systems, into centralism and uniformity. And in-
deed there had never been any doubt of this ; though
office might come, like Santa Glaus, in the night to
the cradles of slumbering politicians, yet in the end
it was office, not the accident of birth, that bestowed

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 11

power and admittance to the Senate. When we find Civilian pre-

some notable fretting against restraint or common eminence *n
,• , i i • « • Vth century.

justice, some boasted or claimed immunity, it is no
feudal peer; it is a creature of the State who has
become, like the "monster," stronger than its
author.

§ 5. The Civil Service of China is examined but is The
not taught by the State ; the growth and early train- Theodosia^

academy for

ing are spontaneous, and only the mature result is officials:
taken under its patronage. In Byzantium since the function °f
reign of Theodosius II. there existed a college for the
discipline of future officials (Cod. Theo., xiv. 9, 3 ;
Just., xi. 1 8, i).

A high test of merit and ability was exacted for a
professor's post ; the " Senate" were the examiners ;
and the lucky candidate might expect, after a certain
term of service, to enter the official hierarchy with
the title of Count. It is to us not a little singular
to see an "emeritus" professor from Germany in
the habiliments of a Privy Councillor, or an honorary
Court Chamberlain ; but such recognition by the
monarch, acting in the name of the State, is quite
in keeping with Roman practice and tradition. We
may well believe that the Senate as an advisory as
well as an examining body possessed large powers
in the reign of Pulcheria. In spite of the charges
of Eunapius that offices were venal, it is clear that
assembly and executive worked well together ; and that
the constitution under an amiable hereditary prince,
a conscientious empress sister, and a competent
imperial council, resembled later and better forms
of that absolutism which supplanted Feudalism and
disorder in Western Europe. Bury well points out
that the early empire steered a doubtful course be-
tween Scylla and Charybdis — a cabinet of imperial
freedmen, Dio's Kata-apeloi, and a sheer military des-
potism. Remedies for each peril were discovered
in (a) permanent council and Civil Service ; (b)
severance of the civil and military careers. But the

CONSTITUTIONAL

HISTORY OF DIV. A

The

Theodosian
academy for
officials :
function of
the Senate.

double danger recurred in a novel form — the new
cabinet of chamberlains and dependents of the Con-
stantinian Court, and the foreign and preponderating
element in the armies. It is impossible not to fore-
cast the secret influences of "aulic cabals." Yet
as the earlier princes charged with the responsible
government of a world found it necessary to put
trust in faithful domestics, so the later influence of
the Court Chamberlain, however distasteful to the
patriot and the civilian, had some intelligible ground.
For the most public-spirited assembly insensibly
alters its tone, and acquires features of individual
avarice and collective resistance to all change how-
ever urgent. The tone of civilian society is not the
same under Anastasius as under Theodosius II. Now
and again the " Senate " appears by name in some
more important relation than a court ceremony. It
seems to have disappointed the hopes of Verina, who
in 475 drove out her son-in-law to place her para-
mour Patricius on the throne ; it elevated her brother
Basiliscus, the unsuccessful admiral of the great
expedition to Carthage. Longinus, Zeno's brother,
is appointed president of the council to reinforce the
Isaurian counterpoise to the German auxiliaries. And
when Anastasius has overcome the peril arising from
this dangerous alliance in the Isaurian mutiny, it is
once more the Senate who proclaim Vitalian an enemy
of the State. He is no " breaker of the king's
peace," no lt comforter of the king's enemies," but
aXXoTpios rtjs TroXtre/a?, a foe to the just and imper-
sonal system of the City State. Once again it is the
Senate who inquire into the conspiracy in Justinian's
last days, when, with the leniency we come to expect
in an emperor, all who seem guilty are pardoned and
set free. It is clear, then, that Justinian gave it a
judicial function, which may have lasted or been
from time to time revived down to the final
abrogation of privilege in the latter half of the
ninth century.

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 13

§ 6. Where earlier critics saw nothing but unmis- Respect for

takable decay under feeble and capricious princes. Precedent '•
. , ,• i , T , autocracy

modern research has disclosed manifest tokens of suspicious of

recuperation and steadfast policy. Finlay, as he itself.
struggles between his evidence and his intuitions,
presents no very clear picture, and is constantly
impaling himself on the horns of a dilemma ; yet he
does justice to the " systematic exercise of imperial
power," the identical interest and common aim of
sovereign and subject, and the gradual internal re-
covery which followed the clear decision of the
Eastern world to tolerate no Teutonic protectorate.

All these princes seek to follow precedent duti-
fully ; and Anastasius is in singular agreement with
Tiberius I. (Cod. ]., i. 22, 6), when he writes to
the governors and judges not to allow a private
rescript to override the law ; the imperial will may
be disregarded if it does not tally with usage.
Tiberius, it will be remembered, had likewise at-
tempted to guard autocracy against its idler or
incautious moments : " minui jura quotiens gliscat
potestas, nee utendum arbitrio cum de legibus agi
possit." Where shall we find the true critic of an
often faulty executive, an often hasty legislature ?
The emperor is warring against himself ; he is
attempting to guard against abuse of prerogative by
an exercise of it. In the United States, the Con-
stitution is sovereign over popular impulse ; the
Supreme Court decides if a measure is consistent
with its provisions. It is the standing complaint of
liberal historians that no such safeguard or division
of function existed in the empire ; that the executive
and legislature and judicature were often at one ; that
the private subject had no redress in the courts against
oppression ; that the governor was also judge in his
own cause. It is not easy to see how this system could
be successfullyamended while retaining the hypothesis
and formula of the Commonwealth : for this paradox
was essential, that which combined with a minute

14 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Respect for subdivision of labour and function the most imperious
Pautocrac' centrausm- During an epoch of comparative peace
suspicious of a respectable civilian body may safely be charged
itself. with imperial duties ; but at a crisis, the single will

and its trusty military retinue must be once more
invoked. Such a period of civil rule marks the
fifth century, — marks again the latter portion of the
sixth. There was no initiative, and for the moment
no need of initiative, in the Emperor Theodosius
II. The machine could go on very well of itself.
There was abroad an honest desire to reform, re-
trench, and rule wisely. The groundwork and
stability of the next reigns — Marcian, Leo, Zeno,
Anastasius, and Justin — were laid firmly under the last
of the Dynastic series. If the emperor was weak or
" constitutional," the Senate, a permanent body with
continuous traditions, assumed the control of public
business. Of the sovereigns who succeeded Theo-
dosius (450-578) no less than six hail from those
northern parts of the Balkan peninsula which for
centuries supplied Rome not merely with recruits but
with an unbroken line of princes. Whether Illy-
ricum or Pannonia, Dardania or Thrace, it is re-
markable that for over three and a quarter centuries
(250-578) these provinces should have so exclu-
sively provided rulers for the world. It cannot be
doubted that Marcian (450-457), in whose nomination
Pulcheria, Aspar, and the Senate seem to unite
amicably, was a notable member of that body,
who supported under the last reign the prudent
policy that lay behind the fugitive personality of
her brother. The chief aim of this policy was to
enthrone law above caprice, to circumscribe despotic
or fitful power by fixed institutions and uniform
procedure ; the motto of these sagacious civilians
might well be the Horatian advice to the playwright,
Nee deus intersit.

| 7. It is scarcely out of place to remark that there
is a similar tendency even among the professed sup-

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 15

porters of modern autocracy. We cannot forget the The Russian
apology which the late M. Pobyedonostseff made for
his sovereign in the matter of the Kieff affair. Prince tions.
Kropotkin had with much waste of sentimentality
objected to students being sent into the army as a
disciplinary measure ; a measure just suited to the
young Russian, which with us would take the form
of sending a spoilt and precocious boy to learn his
place in a public school. For this step the Pro-
curator makes a really needless apology. But when
it comes to placing the responsibility, he is, as Tacitus
would say, " sounding the depths and publishing the
secrets of empire." The emperor was not respon-
sible, it appears ; the action was taken solely by the
Ministers of the Interior and of Education. "The
decree/' he writes, " concerning the military service
of disorderly students was published independently
of any initiative on the part of the emperor. The
ministers in a cabinet meeting, summoned in con-
sequence of these university disorders, deemed it
necessary to have recourse to this punishment, and
this resolution was submitted for the emperor's ap-
proval. The application of this penalty in each case
was to depend on a special committee . . . and its
decisions were to be valid in law without needing an
imperial sanction. The Kieff affair was settled in
this way, and the will of the emperor had no share
in it. . . . It should be remembered that our emperor
never issues such orders on his personal responsibility. He
contents himself with confirming the decisions of the various
executive councils and the resolutions of his ministers in
cases prescribed by rule. ... I was totally ignorant of
the Kieff affair, which concerned two ministers."
This must mean that the emperor, like the ideal
sovereign of Laurentius, only confirms the decisions
of his cabinet,and is not responsible for their mistakes.
We need not sympathise with the pacificist scruples of
the prince about the drafting of disorderly youths
into a sphere of much-needed discipline ; nor do we

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

tims.

The Russian exactly agree with him in seeing here the embryo of
constitutional government and responsible ministries!
Indeed, the above seems the very worst system of
government the heart of man could devise ! The
autocrat is powerless, although in the eyes of the
world solely accountable for every slip or misdeed.
The ministers, so far from being responsible either to
him or to the nation, are practically omnipotent in
their several departments ; and do not even trouble
to consult the sovereign, although he has to bear the
brunt or odium of their injustice. And, like the
official class in our period, " they increasingly assume
the right under the shelter of the emperors signature, of
modifying by mere decrees the fundamental laws
of the empire." But at Byzantium, we notice the
better features only. The age might well be re-
garded as the triumph of bureaucratic government.
The dignified assembly was well served by trained
and organised officials who had learned not merely
general lessons in the Theodosian academy, but the
minute duties of their future career. Nor is it
without significance that just at this time appears
the Code as a further support to a just and uniform
administration, of which Finlay well remarks, "that
it afforded the people the means of arraigning the
conduct of the ruler before the fixed principles of
law."

§ 8. The legislation of the time bears ample witness
to a sincere desire for the reform of abuses in the
higher circles, to the prevalence of an unscrupulous
or antinomian spirit in the lesser agents. Marcian
found himself besieged by complaints, " catervas
adeuntium infinitas" of the imperfect distribution of
justice ; the judges were neither strict nor impartial
(Novella, i.). There was complete accord between
the elderly Senator, called like some Doge of Venice
to be chief among his peers, and the conclave who
had ratified or proposed his election. No fault was
found in the pompous phrases in which he couched

Efforts to
control the

(430-500).

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 17

his sense of imperial responsibility : " Curce nobis est Efforts to
utilitati humani generis provtdere" (Novella, ii.). He control the
remits the follisy as somewhat later Anastasius will (^-500). *
abolish the Chrysargyron, beyond chance of recall ;
and thus relieved the senatorial class from a heavy
burden, which even the emperor himself paid as a
member of the order : for the modern gulf between
the sovereign and the proudest subject, which is a
symbol of State absolutism, did not exist for the
Roman emperor. He also lightened those liturgical
offices, like that of the Greek Choragus or our own
High Sheriff, which subjected wealth to certain
liabilities for the people's amusement : hitherto
Senators of the provinces were called up to act as
praetors in the capital and provide games for an
idle proletariat. The two original praetors of the
city had been increased to eight, all bound to some
costly contribution to public works or public cere-
monies ; for the ancient world, in spite of (or shall
we say because of ?) its plutocratic basis, exacted
much from the opulent, and had no patience with
the cynical luxury, the immunity and aloofness of
the wealthy which is so significant a trait of " demo-
cratic " States. Marcian no doubt reduced the
number of exhibitions, and he refused to summon
from a remote district a rich proprietor to squander
his means on a people who scarcely knew his name.
Residents alone were in future eligible to these oner-
ous and archaic posts ; and the consuls were invited
to share with the praetors the charge of the public
works and buildings, which had pressed heavily on
those who were not required for the less useful
expense of the games. Leo I., following the same
wise policy of simplicity and retrenchment, reduced
these ceremonious offices to three ; and Justinian
completed the work of relief in the abolition of
the consulate. This act, idly supposed to mark an
ignoble jealousy of antique Roman glory, seems to
the dispassionate student to have been dictated by
VOL. II. B

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Efforts to
control the
lesser agent
(450-500).

the soundest motives. Emperor and State were
quit of a dignity which entailed nothing but a con-
venience for the chronicler and a disorderly "lar-
gess " ; to the mass of the people indeed the term
vTrareia, robbed of its proud associations, bore no
other significance, and we do not hear that even the
usual rumblings of discontent " inani murmure ademp-
tum jus questus," follows this revolutionary economy.
Zeno (474—491) maintained the same attitude ; like
Leo the Thracian, he lightened fiscal burdens in the
interest of the landed proprietor ; and the pre-
occupation of their sovereigns with this class is not
a little significant of the critical position of agricul-
ture and of economics. It is hazarded that his
dependence on the " official aristocracy " is proved
by his refusal to nominate his brother Longinus as
successor ; it may well be that both emperor and
Senate had already come to the same conclusion
that he was unfit to rule ; for he had for several
years occupied the chair of President of that
Assembly.

The abolition of the Chrysargyron and the curious

ence of senior apprOval aroused will demand special notice. We

officials in

need only note here the consistent policy of modera-
tion and economy shown alike, no doubt under
senatorial guidance, by the elderly palace official
from Dyrrhachium and the mature Guardsman,
who succeeded an Isaurian chieftain as Roman
emperors. It must be remarked that this imperial
council enabled princes, chosen almost at hazard,
to play a useful and dignified part without any pre-
vious special training ; it respected precedent and
maintained a continuous and unbroken policy. Yet
in justice to these conscientious rulers, who availed
themselves of their advice, the more liberal and
beneficial measures were owed to the independent
thought of the sovereign himself. A wise suppres-
sion of sinecures also marked this era, and a restric-
tion of the excessive influence of certain high offices.

Wise infill-

Senate.

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 19

We do not know how far these civil reforms were Wise influ-
due to the spontaneous action of the monarch ; but ence °fsenior

„ J ... . ,. . ^ officials in

we are well aware how this judicious retrenchment senate.
was viewed in the prejudiced eyes of Laurentius or
Procopius. Amid vague blame or overt calumnies,
the genuine desire of the emperors (including Jus-
tinian) for a wise check on public expenditure is
clearly marked. The unavailing regrets of the
Lydian for the past glories of the prefect's office
and retinue, mark not the jealous suppression by
the monarch of an inconvenient partner or rival, but
rather a natural process, which extinguished with the
litigious centralism of the courts of the capital the
effective civilian control of the outlying provinces.
The Civil Service indeed has passed its palmiest
days. It is subject to an insensible decline, for
which no single actor is responsible. The Senate,
when we open the records of the next period, does
not reflect high public spirit, a sense of duty, a
corporate tradition. The " princes " of the Court of
Justin II. are stigmatised by him as selfish placemen
and dangerous advisers, against whose influence he
warns his successor. By what gradual and silent
steps this transformation was effected we do not
know ; but we may safely infer that the change was
hastened by the despondent lethargy which overtook
Justinian in his later years.

§ 9. The marvel of the endurance and stability Official
of the Eastern realm has fascinated historians. To responsibility.
what can we ascribe the startling contrast in the
fortunes of the two capitals ? It has been well
said : " While the West crumbled, the East saved
not itself only but the world." These adoptive
emperors organised that system, which being hastily
dismissed as Byzantine, has been so " unjustly calum-
niated." The successors of Diocletian coquetted
with his scheme ; but the real consummation was
reserved for the princes who follow the extinction
of the Theodosian house. Constantine introduced

20 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Official heredity and favoured the barbarians ; the elder
responsibility. Theodosius endorsed this policy, and left behind him
a working scheme which the feeble stubbornness of
his son, or the intrigues of ministers, soon destroyed.
At the best, the Roman constitution in the fifth cen-
tury is incoherent and opportunist ; a definite system
was the merit of the immediate predecessors of the
great Justinian. They laboured for that State or
centre-supremacy which was achieved under his ener-
getic rule, and vanished in his lethargy. Officers of
the civil and military hierarchy were made amenable
to " ministerial departments," and thus ultimately all
depended on the sovereign, according to the fixed
principle of modern times. The sovereign was safe
and inaccessible. The treasure was guarded against
peculation. Conspiracy, rebellion, theft — such are
the dangers of a feudal society ; to a large extent
pretexts and opportunities for these crimes against
public peace were withdrawn.

No demand Finlay, as becomes a Grecian liberator, indicts
the BYzantine Government for not placing some
effective safeguard in the hands of the people against
the malversation or petty oppression of subalterns.
He is convinced that in the highest class the public
opinion was wholesome, and the Senate in its aims
and methods patriotic; the "Illyrian" emperors
whom they supported, vigorous and well-meaning.
But a vigilant watch over the obscurer instruments
of the " sacred will and pleasure " was impossible.
And in spite of murmurs, it would not appear that
the people at large demanded control ; and still the
overworked princes struggled in vain with an Atlan-
tean load. He well says that " legislative, executive,
and administrative powers of government were con-
founded as well as concentrated in the person of
the sovereign " ; and he remarks with justice that
" despotism can ill balance the various powers of
the State, and is but ill qualified to study with effect
and sympathy the condition of the governed or the

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 21

disorders of society." But these strictures of nine- No demand
teenth-century liberalism do not suggest any genuine f°rP°P^lar
alternative to the imperial policy. The whole cul-
ture and ability of the empire was cleverly gathered
together on the side of the government ; and there
is no sign whatever of a strong or sullen country
opposition, such as silently thwarted the Whig
administration in our own land during the early
Hanoverian reigns. To us who have before our eyes
the experience and the lessons of the post-reformation
development in the field of politics, it seems a truism
to assert that it is a profound error (i) to accumulate
the wealth of a country in the coffers of a State (as
Constantius Chlorus wisely (Dio C. contin.) : ajmeivov
Trapa TOW iSiwrats Tr\v TOV /3acri\eco$ eviroplav civai rj
/miKpw 7repiK€K\etcr0ai ")(a>pi<p) J or (2) to concentrate
power without counterpoise and balance elsewhere.
The best feature in the doubtful success of modern
Representation, has been the serious character and
responsibility of the recognised Opposition, of those
critics of a ministry whose work and function they
may at any moment be called upon to undertake.
But in the fifth century such a method of securing the
people against their petty tyrants was inconceivable ;
and the sole remedy appeared to be to aggrandise
the central prerogative, as alone equitable and im-
partial. We praise the attempts of these sovereigns,
from Marcian to Justin I., to control autocracy and
supply the final will in the State with ample pre-
cedent and guiding lines not to be overstepped
without danger. It would have been idle to have
then suggested to a statesman or a Senator to elevate
a Supreme Tribunal (as in the United States) over
the executive and legislative powers. There is little
sign that the artificial system known as the Roman
Empire possessed outside the church and clergy a
body of independent opinion with fixed principles
which would act in this manner. And it would
have seemed a cowardly shifting of responsibility

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

No demand
for popular
control.

Public
opinion and
nationality
unknown.

for a prince to advocate such a curtailment of his
own authority as to render impersonal law wholly
superior to the will of the sovereign and the needs
and crises of the State ! So far as it was possible
(as we have seen) the emperors of the sturdy
Illyrian line desired to simplify and to regularise ;
the codes of Theodosius II. and of Justinian were
in a sense a kind of constitutional guarantee.
Indeed, like Severus I., the prince frequently pro-
fessed his obedience to law and his deference to
custom and tradition ; but the attempt was never
made to reduce government to a faultless and
mechanical procedure irrespective of personal vigil-
ance, or to relieve the elected ruler of the ultimate
duty of deciding on the best course. The widow-
woman was right ; if the emperor refused to hear
her complaint she could retort with justice, Mrj
/BaariXeve.

§ 10. The modern critic is not to blame in laying
down such general maxims as these : " Patriotism
and political honesty can only become national
virtues when the people possess a control over the
conduct of their rulers, and when the rulers them-
selves publicly announce their political principles."
But the emphasis of this sentence, quite unsuspected
by its author, lies in the word " national." Now
the East has never made nationality the basis of
public institutions ; and there is no indication in our
period of any genuine and homogeneous opinion,
representing that sentiment for country and tradition,
which we term patriotism. It would seem that the
empire, like the Russian autocracy to-day, held to-
gether and gave a precarious and artificial unity, to
a curious assortment of interests and to a medley of
creeds. It will always be debated on this side and on
that, whether a beneficent hegemony is better than
the restless strife and wrangle of small autonomous
districts. Here we have hope, disorder, and develop-
ment ; there assured comfort and a stationary, perhaps

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 23

a petrified society. Modern Utopias, often without Public
suspecting their sympathy with archaic ideals, again
reinstate the latter conception ; and the States-General unknown.
of Europe, or the more poetical " Federation of
Mankind," really revert in theory to the Roman
Empire, pagan or mediaeval, seamless, one and in-
divisible. But this conception, which shall stop the
blind strife of democracies and abolish the com-
petition of trade, is strongly anti-national, as the
imperial system was supra-national. The true
tendency of democratic States is to be seen in the
protectionist colonies or commonwealths of the
Anglo-Saxons, with their permanent or spasmodic
" Xenelasia," or in the curious hesitation which
admits pauper aliens into England and yet finds
an apology for the anti-Chinese or anti-Japanese
campaign ; such, for instance, as lately issued in riot
and bloodshed on the west coast of America ; in
republic and monarchy alike. The spirit of nation-
ality, indeed, is not liberalism, but its negation ; and
we term the empire liberal because it kept before
the eyes of warring sects and heresies, of dis-
affected yet helpless provinces, the ideal of a larger
Unity, and did its best to break down the barriers of
race, district, and creed. We may say that the codes
realised one condition of sound rule laid down above
by our critical historian ; the general lines of policy
and administration were made public ; and as
regards the first, we cannot in fairness ask that
greater confidence should be displayed than is shown
by Emperor Justin II., who desires the chief men
and clergy of a province to help in choosing their
governor. The critic stands on more secure ground The middle-
when he accuses not the rulers but the unseen c^Cantile &
tendencies of the age, both physical and economic, interest.
If the welfare and freedom of a country depend, as
we may readily admit, upon its middle class, thrifty,
industrious, and proprietary, it must be confessed
that the Eastern realm was in a parlous state. "The

24 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

The middle- State/' says Hegel (Ph. d. R., 297), "if it has no

class and the middie class is still at a low stage of development.
mercantile *

interest. In Russia, for instance, there is a multitude of serfs

and a host of rulers. It is of great concern to the
State that a middle class should be formed." " The
middle and upper classes of Society," says Finlay,
" were so reduced in numbers that their influence
was almost nugatory in the scale of civilisation."
We approach here a problem alike of ancient and
modern times, the blame of which cannot be set
down to the errors or the absence of human inter-
ference. Natural causes and voluntary surrender of
rights changed mediaeval Europe from a federation
of free towns, gathered into peace under a just
hegemony, into a vast and desolate country-side,
peopled by petty sovereigns and serfs. It was
nobody's fault. Natural causes again press out to-
day the small proprietor, the yeoman, and the petty
salesman ; and once more seem to divide society
into the two halves, the trust (or the government)
and its dependents. The decay of the intermediate
rungs in the social ladder cannot then be laid at the
door of this oligarchic autocracy, which reduced the
burdens of the middle class and sought to include
even the " powerful " within the control of law.
Indeed, we are tempted to suppose that, in spite
of fiscal exaction, the Byzantine monarchy was
throughout its history supported by the goodwill of
a silent but influential mercantile class ; such as in
the end directs most civilised policies, under all kinds
of vague and indifferent formulae of government.

We have somehow to account for the vitality and
recuperative powers shown by the Eastern empire.
Pillaged by Persian and Saracen, drained by the
monastic system, impoverished by erroneous if well-
meant finance — it rose again and again into opulence,
such as drew upon it the envious and greedy eyes
of successive invaders. If Octavianus was largely
indebted to the knightly class for his triumph, his

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 25

heirs never forgot this sage alliance. The stability
of the realm and its government depends on its
satisfying the conditions of mercantile exchange ;
it guarded property, it kept clear the lines of inter-
course between the various centres of traffic, and it
patrolled the seas ; nor do I conceive that the em-
phatic words of Constantine VII. are wholly a piece
of archaic pedantry or conceit, when he tells us that
the Byzantine ruler is master of the sea to the Pillars
of Hercules.

§ 11. Thus in this age the constitution tends through Oligarchy
a wise oligarchy to the forms of absolutism. And ^.^/a of
this implies, not caprice but routine ; not perpetual Absolutism.
recurrence to a personal will, but a very infrequent
appeal. A civilised State is in the fetters of tradition
and usage; it defers needlessly to precedent. For in
spite of the stirrings of advanced thinkers and noisy
politicians, the inert and conservative mass of the
people enter into a semblance of power only to
stereotype the conventional. Under Justinian, the
prince as representing the State, mature and sagacious,
maintained control over all departments — the military
leaders, the civil administrators, and the clergy. After
the African disaster under Basiliscus (whose very
failure or treason, as elsewhere in Byzantine annals,
made him seem worthy of a throne !) nothing
venturesome was attempted for more than fifty
years ; efforts were directed solely to domestic
reform down to the memorable " Nika " riots, which
closed the door on the classic period and confirmed
the monarch in his bold forward policy and his stern
measures of repression. There was to be no repeti-
tion of that dramatic scene of aged and apologetic
royalty, when Anastasius sat discrowned waiting for
the people's verdict. In spite of the odd incident
of Vitalian's rebellion, order and system had been
introduced into the State; in the subordinate ranks
of government, discipline ; in the treasury, wealth ;
in the highest and most responsible circle, wise

26 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Careful train- measures and consistent schemes. The training and
Bureaux8- ^e ^unc^ons °f ^e various grades had been
state-service specialised. State-service was not an episode in the
the sole ordinary life of a citizen ; but an engrossing pro-

fession which demanded expert skill. The very
deftness of the adept needed for the intricate details
was fatal to any claim for popular control. The
emperor's Council represented a Universal, of which
the several parts, isolated in their local interests, could
form no conception. Nothing could well be con-
ceived more antithetic to the demands of democracy
than this government by the expert. Hegel derides
this vain claim for personal intervention : " Another
assumption (Ph. d. R.y 308) found in the prevalent
idea that all should have a share in the business of
State, is that all understand this business. This is as
absurd as it is widespread — despite its absurdity."
Once more (315): "There is widely current the
notion that everybody knows already what is good
for the State ; and that this general knowledge is
merely given voice and expression in a State-
assembly. But indeed the very reverse is the case."
The Byzantine bureaux were as carefully organised
as the legal profession to-day. The empire depended
upon the employment of tried and trained ability ;
and stood opposed to the Oriental despotism, where
the influence of favourites, slaves, and aliens is
superior to native forces. To this constant tradi-
tion and discipline it owed the singular duration and
recuperative power which it so strikingly displays.
A modern parallel might indeed be found in the
Roman priesthood. Taken at an early age from the
middle and lower classes of society, they are imbued
with a systematic educational tradition, a tested and
final system of dogma and philosophy, and just that
supranational spirit and sympathy which unites them
as a corporation in an allegiance other than that
which birth or country supplies. Neither system is
easily adaptable to novel conditions of society. A

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 27

bureaucracy is almost incapable of reforming itself ; Carefultrain-
and the venal stagnation of an official class is perhaps ^f°r the
a heavy price to pay for public order. When it is state-service

boasted that the singular merit lies in the supremacy the sole
e . . M1 ., . f ,, , . career.

of system to capricious will, it is forgotten that in

human history the impulse to reform is nearly always
supplied by a St. John Baptist, not by a privi-
leged corporation. The world-spirit stirs first the
individual conscience, the Gemeinde only through
it. The record of imperial governments, from Rome
to modern China or Russia, is often the story of
unavailing personal effort, against respectful but
stubborn officialism. The supremacy of law, which
is to secure the subject against the arbitrary exer-
cise of the central power, may sometimes become
identified with the interest of a class. It is the
tendency of long-dominant bodies to identify and to
confuse in all good faith their own welfare with the
general good. Nothing is gained by recognising
the formal proposition, that law should be superior
to the executive, or to the momentary wishes of the
prince, unless we constantly analyse and examine
suspiciously what we imply by law. This dignified
term may not seldom connote a thoroughly obsolete
code, or the stealthy manipulation of general maxims
for private ends. The supremacy of law, devised
as a remedy against disorder and oppression, may
become on occasion the chief hindrance to much-
needed reform. The Roman Government drew to
itself and took under its patronage all that was
anywhere excellent ; it admitted of no rival ; every-
thing must enter into its magic circle and serve its
end, or perish. When the pagan crusade against the
Church failed, uncompromising hostility gave place
at once to imperial favour and trust. The elements
that could not be overcome must be absorbed or
assimilated. There was no independent or semi-
feudal nobility to criticise or to thwart. All titles
of nobility were official. Outside the service of the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Careful train-
ing for the
Bureaux :
State-service
the sole

career.

Venality of

excuse.

Commonwealth, there was no calling open to
ambition or to merit ; it was part of the imperial
system to see that this was the case. The cultivated
ranks of society were bound to the system by every
sentiment of sympathy and self-interest. It has
been well said that the Byzantine bureaucracy
formed rather a "distinct nation than a privileged
class " ; and it is no wonder if the inheritors of great
traditions and a culture then unique should have
believed that the safety of the whole was bound up
in their corporate prestige or individual comfort.
So in later times, when the palace has engrossed or
engulfed every minor rivulet, the careful main-
tenance of State-ceremony will appear a " divine
science " ; and like the preservation of exact ritual
and formula in a primitive tribe, this " liturgy " will
seem the mysterious and imperishable secret or pal-
ladium of the public welfare.1

§ 12. " Formerly in France," says Hegel (Ph. ct. R.,
277), "seats in Parliament were saleable, and this
is still the case with army officers' positions in the
English army below a certain grade. These facts
depended or depend upon the mediceval Constitution
of certain States, and are now gradually disappear-
ing." I am not here concerned with the accuracy or
the scope of this remark ; I am using his phrase as a
suitable opening to a short inquiry into the venality
of office. It is clear that such a system has not
excited in the past, even in civilised societies, the
odium and contumely directed against its still sur-
viving vestiges to-day. The most curious and frank
provisions are to be found in the code for the pay-
ment to the Emperor Justinian or to his consort a fee
on entering office.2

Now the horror excited even by the suspicion
of paying rather than receiving money for official

1 Lyd.t ii. 13; C. Theod., vi. 5; C. Just., xii. 8: ut dignitatum ordo
servetur.

* Cod. Just., i. 27, i, 2; Cod. Just., xii. 24, 7.

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 29

rank is amusingly strong with us to-day ; but it must Venality of
not lead us wilfully to distort the past or to hold up °
pious hands of protesting innocence. The sum de-
manded might be regarded as a preliminary deposit,
a guarantee of good faith and competence, a fee on
registration or institution, such as with our sensitive
yet easily cajoled conscience conceals much the same
practice to-day. A company rightly demands that a
director shall have a certain stake in the enterprise
he controls ; and one reads without alarm the judi-
cious warning that the holding of a prescribed number
of shares qualifies for a seat at the directoral board.
Yet put in another form, all sorts of respectable
scruples would be aroused, if it were to be publicly
announced that these places could be purchased. As
regards political rather than mercantile dignities, it
is only the voluntary blindness of the puritan ostrich
that can fail to detect a close parallel in modern
times, and in a State justly renowned for high
morality and sense of honour in its public life. Yet
we indulgently tolerate the purchase of official rank
and that very real political and social influence which
a peerage conveys. It should indeed be noticed, in
further extenuation of the ancient practice, that there
is no pretence to-day that the State has benefited by
the lavish contribution to the party-chest ; it is cynic-
ally acknowledged that the money has been sub-
scribed to add the sinews of war to a faction, which
for the time may stand for the nation, but at no given
moment is strictly representative of anything but
itself. And it must be candidly stated that, however
harmlessly such a recognised venality of title may
operate in practice, it is a serious menace to the
genuinely representative character of the sovereign,
who is thus compelled by custom to confer honours
not for national but for factious and factitious ser-
vices, and to recruit the " senatorial " order only
from the ranks of prejudice and party. It may be
hoped that in the not unlikely enlargement of the

30 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Legal fiction direct and personal sphere of monarchy, some safe-
of Simony, guard will be devised for the precious independence
of the sovereign ; since it stands above party, and is
not merely the spokesman, but also the best judge
of general good. The same lamentable puritanic
confusion of thought has opened one form of practice
in ecclesiastical matters to universal obloquy, while
retaining another unnoticed. It is in vain that the
purist or the logician proves that the sin of simony can
strictly be committed only by a prospective member of
the episcopal bench, who has to deposit certain
moneys before the State will authorise consecration.
It is clear that in this case such payment is the in-
dispensable condition, or at least preliminary, before
receiving a spiritual gift. No such stigma can pos-
sibly attach to the purchaser of an advowson-right
with the intention of presenting himself to the bishop
on a vacancy. A benefice is not a spiritual gift, and
no spiritual gift is purchased. No limit whatever is
put upon the judgment and discretion of the diocesan.
Only a right is conveyed to exercise a function (pre-
sumed to be already valid), subject to a prelate's
sanction and institution, in a particular district. The
term simony (a legal fiction which has imposed on
many candid minds) has no application in such a
case. As in other instances, an office is venal, and
no doubt in a sphere where such a premium on
wealth ought not to exist ; but the opponents of
clerical patronage, one safeguard at least against
over-centralisation, should be careful to discover the
really weak parts in the harness, and refrain from
setting up imaginary crimes to tilt against.

Modern con- The modern conception of office is in its very
ceptton: nature antagonistic to this practice. The tendency
profit.' of political reform is on the surface towards a some-

what watery democracy, but beneath the current sets
strongly towards State-monopoly. There is a certain
prejudice or suspicion abroad against unpaid officials
who render gratuitous service, because such duties

CH. i THE ROMAN EMPIRE (400-550) 31

seem the natural outcome and fitting responsibility Modern con-
of their social position. Of such independent rivals c(
the State is jealous, as of a relic of bygone feudalism ;
but it is apt to forget that this conception of unpaid
service as a citizen's duty is also an integral notion
in the purest forms of republic. The regimen of
Justinian suffered from exactly the same faults as any
modern centralised constitution. The sole paymaster
was the State ; and in a public career opened the
unique vista to the aspirant. Hegel is at one with
the Byzantine rulers and with modern centralism
when he says (Ph. d. R.y 294): "The State cannot
rely upon service which is capricious and voluntary ;
such, for instance, as the administration of justice by
knights-errant." But something of the spontaneous,
it must be avowed, is lost in systematising, in sur-
rendering all public business to paid officials. To
find one's sole means of livelihood or hope of advance
in the State-service, transforms the whole idea of
civic duty from sentiment into self-interest. Progress
in " popular " government and liberal measures is
marked to-day by an increase of functionaries and of
expenditure. The first " citizen "-monarchy enjoyed
by the French, replaced in the time of Louis Philippe,
a genuine if slumbering sense of honour by a desire
to procure a place under government ; which to the
present moment combines with Napoleon's absolut-
ism in checking indefinitely the emergence of a
vigorous and patriotic governing class. The early
emissaries of Caesar were few and conspicuous ; their
misdeeds and their penalties resounded through the
empire. But when agents of the sovereign power
were multiplied, directly responsible only to the
equally corrupt vicar just above them in the hierarchy,
control of this infinite multitude ceased. Custom
gave them security of tenure ; for the civil servant
was a partial judge of faults and temptations to
which he himself was no stranger.

And in concluding the general survey we cannot

supervision.

32 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DJV. A

Failure of forget that the increase of prerogative and the employ-
monarchical ment of centralised or absolute forms did not ensure
the imperial control over the lesser agents, who
wrought mischief with his name and reputation by
making out of them screens for wrongdoing. The
more remote provinces might drift into practical
autonomy, as Naples, Venice, Amalfi ; but the more
usual fate was to fall into the hands of some nominal
agent of Caesar, who had all the airs and vices of
an independent feudal vassal. In such a condition,
then, we leave, for the present, the general question
of the administration under the " Illyrian " or adop-
tive emperors, from 450-550. The result of the
good intentions but inherent weakness of the system
will be seen in the second period, when we con-
sider the merits, the fortune, and the failure of the
successors of Justinian.

CHAPTER II

THE FAILURE OF THE AUTOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION

(535-565)

§ 1. IT must now be confessed that the ideal of The witness

government portrayed in our last chapter, and especi- °/con-

11 • j.t- • xi_ j.- r f j.- temporaries.

ally m the ninth section, was a dream of perfection

which never visited the earth. In this supplement
it will be necessary to examine the testimony of
those who lived at the very time that the central
government was enunciating its loftiest aims and
most earnest platitudes ; and, without discouraging
the general reader by excessive detail, to survey
more closely than is consistent with the plan of
the present task, contemporary witness, — in this
age unusually abundant and strangely at variance.
Three works are of especial interest — (i) the Novels
of Justinian ; (2) the Secret History of Procopius ;
(3) the Treatise on Magistrates by John Lauren-
tius the Lydian. I will begin with this last ; its
wider political interest and historical knowledge
entitle it to the first place. Procopius is a veno-
mous purveyor of scandal and superstition ; Justinian,
a solemn preacher of morality and the duties of a
sovereign ; but Lydus, though a disappointed civil
servant with a genuine grievance, has (in spite of
much inaccuracy and questionable matter) both
impartiality and sympathy with the difficulties of a
ruler. Chiefly, however, his historical acumen gives
him a right to the first hearing ; for as a student
of political causes he deserves, from the wide range
of his learning and the boldness of his speculation,
more credit than can be given to the senile ravings
of Procopius' secret desk. He has a theory of the

VOL. II. 83 C

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

The witness
of con-
temporaries.

(A) The
Notary with
a grievance.

The Pre-
fecture

successively
under (a)
Oonstantine,

decay, indeed ruin and shipwreck, of the State ; and
I must carefully disentangle, from the mass of irre-
levant antiquarian lore, his penetrating analysis of
the reasons for this decline.

It must be remembered that the Philadelphian
notary is a learned specialist, biassed in spite of him-
self by his narrow training and official routine. He
identifies the ruin of an advocate's professional pros-
pects with the overthrow of the State. He has served
forty years (510—550) and lost his pension; therefore
the very foundations of the earth are out of course.
He is a representative of that cultured Neo-Platonic
Hellenism, which was out of place in the age of
Justinian ; the world could not be ruled by men
of uncertain faith and pedantic archaism. He
recognises, while deploring, that the prefect of the
East could be no more a man of polite letters and
cultured ease ; he must become an unscrupulous
tax-gatherer. Nor could his chief function lie in
dispensing justice ; in the growing poverty of the
realm there were no cases or suits, and no litigants
pressed with generous fees to secure the services of
notary and advocate.1 Every allowance must be
made for the peculiar attitude of Lydus. He was
a survivor from a bygone age, and his political
ideal was an anachronism. Those whom the Great
Plague spared had need of a very different kind of
government ; and the future lay with the Church
which Lydus could not understand, and with the
military officers who had once bent low in homage
before the Prefect.

§ 2. He traces back the abasement of the pre-
fecture (and with it of the empire) to the innova-
tions of Constantine.2 He has but an imperfect

1 iii. 9 : irpa.yfj.aTuv /*TJ 6vr<av rots fonj/coois (? trouble or material for
litigation), more fully explained in 14 : raura irdvra. 7ra/>a7r6XwXe . . . ry
re /i-Jj elvai irpdyfj-ara rots 1^77*6015 irevla Kara00etpcyt6'<us, /crX.

* As to the chief changes in the conception of magistracy, Lydus is
well aware that in Republican times office was autocratic, but jealously
restricted in time (Tac. Ann. i. I, adtempus sumebantur}. He quotes from

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 35

acquaintance with the great constitutional changes The Pre-

of the fourth century; but he knows that the office fecture

underwent a certain modification, was confined to successively

the Eastern frontier, abandoned the supervision of under (a)

the army, and became exclusively engrossed in legal Constantine>

and financial functions. He repeats with solemn

emphasis the curious passage (ii. 10-12 ; iii. 40-42)

which describes this change ; and it is perhaps a

unique instance in our age of political theory. The

next moment in the transformation of office and

empire falls under Theodosius and Arcadius : when

the sovereign ceases to go out to war, when the now

civilian office of the prefecture becomes tyranny

under Ruffinus by the side of legitimate authority.

Had he lived in the tenth century, he might have

said the same about the Regents or associate-

emperors. He tells us that the old theory was that

the emperor was both man of letters and man of

war ; * but when he ceased to discharge any effective

duties in person, power fell into the hands of the

new vizierate. After the overthrow of Ruffinus, its (P)Arcadius,

Aurelius (Dig. i. xi.) : rots dpxaiois . . . i) Tracra irpbs Kcupbv et-ovvia . . .
tiriffrevero i. 14 ; and says himself, on the consulate of a year only,
Tra.vTo.xov 'Pw/xcuwj/ rats tvaXXayais ;£cup6»'TWj>, i. 37- Efficiency demands
first the indefinite extension of exceptional commissions (as with Pompey) ;
next, the duration of office is lengthened to the term of life ; lastly (with
more doubtful results), to the term of a dynasty. All minor offices were
merged into the Principate, which thus united and indefinitely prolonged ;
after his fatal war against Senate and Pompey (6\ttipioi> ?r6Xe/iov, i. 38)
Caesar became debs, dpxiepefc, tina-TOs, fjt.6va.pxos, ttrtTpoiros T&V aTravraxov
fiaaCKfav, iTnrapxos, <rr partjy bs, <pti\aj- 7r6Xews, irpwros dyftdpxw. The
tendency then (as Lydus recognised), was no longer to pass office round
among the citizens, but to make government an expert profession, de-
manding not merely special training but special descent; he has a curious
passage on the early hereditary character of Caesarism (rb ird\ai ^ T<£
TVXOVTI dXXoi fj.6vots rots fK rrjs Kalffapoy o~eipas KartoCffiv lyx€lplfcltf r&
Kpdros, ii. 3).

1 iii. 53. Trajan's officers ot ro?5 re X670is rots re 2/37015 ets roaairrt]v
etfK\etai> rty TroXirelav dvfoTi}<rav. But after the troubles of Justin's reign,
especially the Persian war, TO \onrbv \oyu<ois -rrdpodos oik fy tirl T^V
So iii. 33. Constantine 7roXt)s &v ev rrj iratdetio'ei \byuv K.

, j3a<rtXei)s . . .

36 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

The Pre- authority was reduced * and matters went on with-

degraded ou* cnange until the ill-starred African expedition

successively in Leo's reign. To this disaster Lydus attaches

l(p^Arcadius *ke gravest importance ; and he believed that the

' Commonwealth never recovered from the blow.2

He entertained the most sinister opinion of Leo and

his Isaurian son-in-law ; and saw in the unfortunate

holders of the once proud title of Prefect, mere

fiscal agents who sought in vain to collect funds from

(y) Anas- a ruined people. For Anastasius, under whom he
tasius, f 1- • \ i t , .,

began his public service (510 or 511), he had the

liveliest affection and esteem ; 3 but he traced to the
influence of Marinus the most disastrous step in
further deterioration. This low-born " deskman," 4
Scriniarius, was raised to the prefecture in the pre-
vailing indigence ; and it is certain that Anastasius
left a substantial treasure as reserve-fund for future

Mi. IO : P. rvpavvtda fj.e\€T7i<ravTa . . . eis fidpaQpov rr)
Ka.Tap'p'i\l/ai. AvriKa fj-kv ydp 6 j3curtXet)s r^s CK rdov &ir\wv laxtios d0at/3etrat
. . . <paf3ptK&v (oTrXoTroucDv) (ppovriSos . . . 5rj/j.o(rlov 5p6fJ.ov (a charge soon
restored to the Prefect, but under careful supervision). So in. 7. P. ...
TTJV i!nra.pxov dpxty Kpr)fj.vt<ravTos. So iii. 23, where the changes of the
terrified Arcadius after R.'s tyranny are set forth.

2 See iii. 43, 44: vavdyiov TTJS 0X77$ TroXirefas. "For neither the
public treasury nor the prince's privy purse sufficing, all the equipment
of war perished at once in that luckless enterprise ; and after this disaster
the exchequer was no longer able to play its part but long forestalls all its
receipts (oik^rt rb Tafueiov twfipKeffev eavry &XX& Tr/jojSaTra^ . . . irpb Kaipov
T& /i^Trw tv £\ir[5i. . . . ws airtpavTov elvai ri\v airoplav rov Srj/noaiov). For
the sins of Leo and Zeno (of whom Justinian speaks, rrjs ef!<re(3ovs X^ews),
see 45.

3 [Anastasius] iii. 47 : "For this one merit that he alone after Con-
stantine lightened the burden of taxation (rty TWV $vx&v &cot/0i(re
da<rfjio\oytaj>), though death prevented the full relief, may God forgive
all the sins he ever committed ; for he was but a man." In 51 he has,
like Psellus five hundred years later, a very proper judgment of the
dangers of a pacific and civilian regime, which prevailed in the early
years of the sixth century under Anastasius : etp-^vrj 5£ paBeTa rty ircurav
£xalbvov iro\iTelav K. ou% TJKKTTa rbv ffTpa.Tit!)n)v, irdiwcw 6fj.ov TTJV TTJS
a^X^j pqffT&v'irjv £rj\otivT(j)v K. Stw/c6rra>y ra jSacriX^ws eiriTrjSeijfJiaTa.. This
sentence might well form the text of the whole later period after Basil II.

4 iii. 36. There was no doubt about the plenary authority of Marinus,
TT]v S\tjv dvafa<rd(Ji.evos T£V Trpay/jidTuv diolKir]<rii>. The taxes disappeared
and the retinue vanished did rrjv T&V Qdpuv ^Xdrrdxriv els iraireXr)
dTrtiXetav rd rfjs rd^ews Kar^crr^. For his enormities, see iii. 49, 50, 51.

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 37

needs. But the office no longer employed cultured The Pre-
notaries and dignified advocates ; it was contented "^f^J^
with menial satellites of extortion and inquisition.1 successively

With the advent of the reigning house from Dar- u™der (v)

,. . Anastasius,

dania (518) the tempest burst upon the empire.

The Persian war, started by the faithless Chosroes, (5) the
called for exceptional expenditure ; the European Dardanians.
provinces were wasted by Getse and Antes ; the
emperor embarked in colossal and untimely enter-
prises of recovery ; and to crown the confusion,
John of Cappadocia succeeded to the remnants of
the degraded office. He gives us those full and
racy details of his scandalous life, transferred to the
pages of modern historians, who neglect the more
edifying parts of Lydus. The fragments contain
a description of his successor Phocas, and the
attempt of this Prefect to introduce some order into
the hopeless chaos of imperial finance. Finally, we
have the account of the Cappadocian's misdeeds,
tempered by a solemn statement that Justinian knew
nothing of them. At the moment when Theodora
is about to depose the too powerful minister, the
narrative is interrupted by a lacuna. It is to the
first misrule of the Cappadocian that he traces the
revolt of Nika, costing (as he asserts with some
exaggeration) 50,000 lives. It is thus clear that
Lydus confuses the order of time in order to heap
all responsibility for disaster on a single culprit's
head. The wars of aggrandisement and the Persian
campaigns were subsequent to the Nika insurrec-
tion ; and John enjoyed his longest tenure of the
office some time later.

§ 3. Such is the criticism passed on two and a Lydus as
half centuries of Roman methods of government

1 iii. 39. Freedom is the distinguishing feature of the Roman P° ICV'
Commonwealth, and this is now entirely out of favour. The modern
official was ignorant of tradition and precedent, and of the limit and
purpose of all civil authority. Some day they will learn to respect liberty,
and cease to injure the subjects (bfiplfav ptv rty e\evdeplav K.
TOI)S virytcoovs ol rbv 8pov TTJS

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

Lydus as
critic of the
imperial
policy.

The ultimate
ruin of the
office under .
John.

(300-550). Lydus believes (no doubt rightly) that
the want of money was the root of all evil ; that,
while municipal franchises were abolished, armies
starved, and costly expeditions lost through careless
neglect or inadequate equipment, the second office
in the empire was degraded into a mere robber
of the well-to-do. For this, no imperial demon in
human form was responsible, as in the foolish
rodomontade of Procopius. It is plain that Lydus
believes the emperor to exert very little power, to
know very little of the true condition of the land,
and to have abandoned, with his warlike skill and
eloquence, all real control.1 When Ruffinus and
John set up the state, not of a powerful minister
but of a rival emperor, the sole remedy was no
doubt to break up the single office and make of the
debris a host of squalid and petty magistracies. Side
by side .with the significant statement of Agathias
that Justinian was the first genuine autocrat in fact
as well as theory, it is interesting to note the limits
on absolutism which Lydus recognises. He is under
no illusions as to the emperor's power. Since Leo's
disaster, the State is bankrupt ; and these " transient
and embarrassed phantoms," the Prefect-Chancellors
of the Exchequer, struggle vainly against ruin. The
emperor can do nothing but throw himself into the

1 He blames neglect of former princes (seemingly he includes all the
successors of Theodosius), ii. 15, 16 : TOI>S tyirpoffdev /Se/Sao-tXetf/coras
fao-rAvi] ditXvo-e (cp. ii, where Theodosius, foreseeing his sons' foffrdvij,
legislates (!) against emperor's personal conduct of war, ripy rrjv dvdplav
eXaXb'wo-e). So the emperor was supreme judge in the Court of Final
Appeal ; but this good use lapsed into desuetude owing to growth of idle-
ness, just as Synesius complained before Arcadius (16, o-yvydeias eh
Tpv<f>T)v diaXvOefovjs K. TWV ^Trpoffdev &fj.a rots oTrXois K. afrrriv TTJV (J.expl
\6yuv (frpovrlSa TWV KOLVUV diroirTv<rdvTUv). In spite of several errors, Lydus
is clear ( I ) that the prefect became a sovereign and irresponsible vizier, and
the emperor a puppet, both in war and judicial duties : (2) when the pre-
fecture was reduced and broken up, the emperor strove in vain to recover
his authority. The golden days of the empire lasted so long as sovereigns
led in battle and provincial governors were vigilant for justice, not rapine ;
iii. IO : T&V ptv tfiirpoadtv J3a<ri\{<>w eirl robs TroX^iovs oputivTuv K. TWV rds
l6vv6vTi»)v TOIS v6/xois dXX' ov rats fcXoircus Trposaypvirvoiji>Tui>.

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 39

arms of any unscrupulous scoundrel who promises The ultimate

to supply funds for the imperial needs. It was of
no avail to elevate a high ideal of State-duty and j0hn.
personal service, while resort was had to torture
and oppression, while taxes were collected at the
cost of noble lives. This picture of the necessitous
monarchy will explain much that is absurd or un-
intelligible in Procopius ; and, while both civil
servants (of a bygone age) have each their griev-
ance, Lydus' moderation of tone and temperate
criticism gains him credence and puts him on a
far higher level among historians.

Such is the main thesis of Lydus for our purpose.
Antiquarian though he be, a personal motive led him
to trace the Roman offices in the periods of king-
ship, republic, and empire. And interesting as is
the survey of their archaic origin and use (with all
his amusing errors of time or fact), the vigorous part
of his story deals with his own time and his own
injuries. As a philosophical statesman or theorist
of government, he has passages of great judgment
and shrewdness, and demands more attention than
he has yet received from the student of constitu-
tional history.

§ 4. With Procopius the case is altogether different. (B) Proco-
I fully accept the results of Professor Bury's learned c

researches, and acknowledge with regret that this
vindictive and foolish fairy-story is the posthumous
work of a consummate hypocrite. . . . Procopius
would seem to have borrowed from current Chris-
tianity nothing but its superstition, and to have
completely abandoned the temperate judgment which
makes us value his story of Belisarius' campaign.
Yet the work is by no means lacking in material
for a kinder opinion. We can easily recognise the
lineaments of the same Justinian that Lydus reveals.1

1 M. Diehl has drawn attention to the amiable weakness of character
betrayed in Justinian's later portraits ; and it is clear that a careful
physiognomist would detect its presages even in features of the earlier

40 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

(B) Proco- Here we find behind the mask of an ogre or bogey,
PRist I8e>cret an untiring and painstaking ruler of limited capacity,
evidence surrounded by men he could not trust, and finding

ruined by hjs unique expedient in an autocracy which he could
hyperbole and . , . T T , . .1

inconsistency. n°t maintain. Hampered at every turn by the want

of money, he became the victim and the dupe of
any minister who promised to replenish his coffers.
He was unable and unwilling to inquire too closely
into the methods of the fisc. In place of trained
servants, the prefect was surrounded by alien bailiffs
and executioners. Even Lydus' accounts of tyranny,
exaction, and torture, both in the capital and in his
own birthplace, Philadelphia, may well be ex-
aggerated. But Procopius defeats his own end, and
while defending a notorious criminal, tries to blame
the emperor for ingratitude in his treatment of John
of Cappadocia. It is hopeless to expect consistency
in this venomous attack. Justinian is alternately
made out to be the incarnation of devilish cunning
and an amiable and easy-going dupe. His uncle
was like a mule, following any one who grasped the
halter, shaking his ears with a grotesque solemnity.
But the nephew is a sheep, at the mercy of the last
speaker, ignorant, weakly affable, and incorrigibly
untruthful. Yet he is also Domitian * reincarnate
for the ruin of the empire, or Satan himself come
to earth to wreak his vengeance on the whole human
race and slay as many as possible, knowing that his
time is short. He is the single author of all the

coins and conquests. Succeeding too hurriedly to enterprises which
seemed past belief, he spent thirty years in a vain attempt to recover his
position in the zenith from which Nemesis deposed him in the very
moment of triumph. In spite of his weakness and (as we cannot doubt)
his own sense of his shortcomings, of the limits to absolute benevolence,
he never relinquished the struggle ; he is one of the bravest and most
persevering sovereigns in history, and bears no slight resemblance to
another victim of ambition and overwork, Philip II. of Spain.

1 Proc. insists on the remarkable physical resemblance of the two
monarchs. Even Lydus, ii. 19, seems to compare the two, though with-
out expressly stating it, Kevodoj-os ykp &v 6 Ao/*ertav6s rots
tdiov 8£ rvpdvvov dvarptireiv rob TrdXcu

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 41

calamities which befell the State ; and the enlarge- (B) Proco-
ment of the realm on which Lydus dwells with pride
and admiration, is a chief point in the indictment of evidence
Procopius. The reader must sternly disregard the ruined by
scandalous account of Theodora's youth (so dear to
the odious taste of Gibbon and his age) and the
legends of the imperial goblin, his aims and policy
and habits. Yet notwithstanding, we can extract
evidence from the lucid intervals in this fantastic
nightmare, which bears out the witness of other
authors and is even consistent with his own
published works. Yet the reckless rancour of the
Anecdota will always prejudice the rare student of a
problematic age. It is hard on a first acquaintance
to credit Procopius with any better aim than wil-
fully to caricature the characters of men and the
events of a period, to which he had consecrated so
much serious pains and literary labour.

§ 5. Wherever he speaks of the personal initiative P. as witness

of Justinian and Theodora, or of the myriads o{ to (\.) domes-
J . J tic disorders,

mortals sacrificed in war, or plague, or levy, to

satisfy their greed of carnage, we must discount his

accuracy. But he is not at fault on certain features

of the time which the unhappy emperor would

have been the first to admit. They may be arranged

in the following order. The State as a whole was full

of (a) civic riot and license, and of (/3) religious mutiny (a) civic riot,

and disaffection. Anastasius had been the victim

of a tumult in which the imperial dignity was

gravely compromised. The circus factions in every

great city fought and destroyed one another, like a

modern mob at a football match, or a crowd at a

race-course when suspicious of unfair play. The

ordinary police i were unable to cope with this

wild disorder, in which, besides the conventional

1 Lydus, ii. 15, deplores the popular tumults which made peace more
dangerous than war (6 5^/ios tfeijXdrois dixovolcus dvairrdfjievos . . . &v ^e/ca
fiapVTepav rt> drjfj.6criov 8a.ir6.vrjv {xplcrTaTcu irpbs <f>v\aK7jv rr)S elp-^vrjs $ wpbs
dvaxo.tTtcrfji.bv TUV iroXefduv) , and the maintenance of domestic order more
costly than the repression of foreign foes.

42 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

P. as favouritism of the Colours, there mingled an element

^(^civi^riot °* theological enmity and misplaced metaphysical
acumen. These frequent scenes of riot which
baffled the vigilance of the urban prefects grew
in intensity throughout the empire, until the fires of
aimless sedition were quenched in the suppression
of the Nika; and the last degraded remnant of
ancient classical freedom was abolished.

The vacillating conduct of the emperor to the
partisans, the nervous division of imperial favour
between the two chief factions, bears strong witness
to a real danger and menace to public order. But
it also completely disposes of the usual allegations
as to the miserable state of the populace throughout
the empire. In the famous dialogue between the
factions and the imperial Mandator, there is some
question of official oppression by a certain Calo-
podius, none of general public grievance or in-
tolerable tax. This licentious leisure and insolent
repletion of the urban mob proves nothing, I am
well aware, as to the state of the country districts
or the happiness of the peasant. But it is at least
certain that in the first quarter of the sixth century
the town-proletariat, indulged and feared, relieved
from care by a pauperising Church and a Socialist
government, found ample leisure for a tumultuous
amusement which shook the throne and dissolved
society.

(b) religious The empire was (/3) full of religious disaffection :
schism, Justinian is represented as the persecutor of as-

trologers, Montanists, Manicheans, Hebrews, and
Samaritans (Anecd., §§ n, 28); and we know that
this last body created a serious rising in Palestine,
elected a rival emperor Julian, and sold their lives
dearly. It is then unfair to hold the emperor ac-
countable for a universal feature of the time, namely,
a widespread discontent with Hellenic orthodoxy,
which is largely to blame for the ease of the
Arabian conquests just a century later.

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 43

§ 6. Another characteristic of the age was an P. as
inarticulate fiscal grievance under a mistaken system ^l^ss to
of economy, to which no alternative was ever sug- oppression,
gested. One serious charge in the Anecdota is that
Justinian never remitted arrears of taxation ; it being
the custom, both before and after that prince, to
require taxes on an impossible scale and condone
those arrears which necessarily arose, as an act of
imperial grace and at regular intervals. The Byzan-
tine Government might well have listened to the
advice given by a well-known teacher to an ambitious
but disappointing youth ; "Take a lower ideal and
live up to it." Nor can the emperor be blamed for
desiring that the laws should be set in operation
(Tiberius' leges exercendas esse), and the taxes duly
collected unless expressly repealed. It is impossible
to defend a fiscal system, which ruined the poorer
owners and made notable victims among the great.
But it is a little remarkable that no alternative scale
of taxation was proposed ; and modern critics (as
I have said before) can scarcely complain if the
wealthy were rated that the indigent might be re-
lieved. There is no doubt that in this period the (d) impover-
realm was rapidly impoverished, both in men, in
capital, and in natural resources. The emperor,
helplessly confronting an impracticable task, watched
with alarm the growing wastes, attempted to collect
the rates on derelict property from the unhappy
neighbours of the fraudulent fugitive, and was obliged
to shut his eyes to the odious means by which the
prefect filled the exchequer. While officials waxed
wealthy and the country poor, the sole method left
to the monarch was the Oriental device : a vizier was
permitted to enrich himself at the expense of the
subjects that the State might confiscate and become
his sole legatee. Of this there is no lack of proof at
this time.

Justinian is by turns accused as spendthrift and (e) penury
avaricious, wasteful and hoarding (§§ 5, 8, 19). It

44 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

P. as is easy to explain this inconsistency by a simple fact,

JJJJJJJ^ that he was at his wits' end to secure money for the
strait of the conduct of government, the prosecution of his aims.1
exchequer. Once embarked on his gigantic schemes of recovery,
which he regarded as a sacred duty, there was for
him' no turning back. He was forced by circum-
stances to forget in practice his high ideals of pure
justice and official innocence. He sold office as
Pulcheria had done a century before, while forbid-
ding all such civil simony (§§ 20, 21). He modified
the rigid outline of impersonal law to suit the needs
(and the purse) of eager applicants for privilege ; and
Leo the Cilician became a trusted minister because
he taught Justinian this easy mode of replenishing
the treasury (§§ 13, 14). This same indigence and
thrift crept into every department of State ; he
allowed Alexander in Italy and Hephaestus in Alex-
andria to cut off the corn-supplies and estrange
the poor (§ 26). Although these distributions of
political bread were discontinued without protest
under Heraclius in a still severer crisis, it is clear
that only the direst need would compel an emperor
to run counter to the demands of a dangerous urban
mob.

(ii.) External § ?• We have spoken of the civic factions, and of

rfjur- religious and fiscal troubles, for which the times and

enterpriseand not tne administration must be blamed. We come

extravagance, now to Justinian's warlike aggression, and to his

system of national defence; both forming serious

counts in Procopius' virulent indictment. We have

already dealt with the former ; the recovery of the

ancient limits of the empire seemed not a wanton

aggrandisement, but a plain duty and an obvious

task. We have already shown that there is a re-

verse side to all imperialism ; for the people in an

age of conquest rarely benefit by their glorious

history. The arguments and the common sense of

1 Lydus, iii. 54, £Set 5£ x/s^drwv K. ovStv fy &vev atruv
. . . Xpvfflov oto direipov expfy firoppplffai rty

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 45

the Little Englander would be unimpeachable, were (ii.) External
it not for a justifiable fear that without Greater P°licy • ,
Britain there would be no more Little England. enterprlsTand
The party of Quaker protest against ambition and extravagance,
militarism has a constant value ; and the general
question of the necessity or merit of Justinian's
victories will always be debated. But the plaintiff
destroys his credit, and alienates an impartial jury, prevalent
by his extravagant hyperbole. He regards Justinian ™isery and
as the unique cause of all the disasters which befell
the world ; he notes his thirst for blood, and esti-
mates at a modest total of a myriad myriad myriads
the number of deaths during his reign. Italy and
Africa are reduced to a desolate wilderness ; and
he computes among his victims the Teutonic strangers
and persecutors whom he expelled. But as planning
the deliberate ruin of the entire globe, he is also held
responsible for all deaths by natural catastrophe, by
deluge and flood, earthquake and pestilence. There
can be no doubt as to the well-deserved and unhappy
renown of this sixth century. Popes like Gregory
the Great, emperors like Tiberius and Maurice,
seem conscious that in such universal disaster the
" end of all things drew near." The age was dis-
solving, and all was prepared for the reign of Anti- the reign of
Christ. Yet it is strange to find the most serious Antichrist-
preacher of this superstitious dread among the dwin-
dling ranks of cultured Hellenism. For Procopius
the reign of Antichrist had already begun ; the devil
himself sat enthroned in the palace, as a holy monk
averred and as events abundantly proved. It is
tempting to believe that these absurd accretions to a
charge-list, in itself formidable enough, were the work
of a Nonconformist interpolator, who hated Justinian
more for his heterodoxy than for the public ruin he
brought on mankind. But we may take apart the
losses of war, the damage of recovery, and the con-
stant repetitions of far-off conquest which were
entailed by the fiscal system, the disorders of the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

(ii.) External
policy :
the reign of
Antichrist.

(b) Defensive
system :

(1) Invaders
bribed.

(2) Chain of

fortresses

built.

army of occupation, the constant lack of money and
men. For these Justinian must in a measure be held
to account, yet is it possible for his ancient or modern
critics to suggest an alternative policy ?

As to the system of national defence, Justinian soon
found this a graver task than chivalrous crusades
against Arian usurpers in Africa or Italy. Here we
may note three distinct and deliberate designs, all
of which succumb to the sweeping censure of the
Anecdotist : (i) Payment to the barbarians (§§ n, 19,
30) instead of repressing their inroads. Justinian (it
was said), himself a barbarian (§ 14), loved these wild
tribes better than his own subjects (§§ 21, 23); he
punished these without mercy for daring to defend
themselves against his darling and privileged marau-
ders ; and (perhaps as a counterpoise to the citizens
who detested him) he filled Byzantium with an in-
credible number of aliens. — Now it is quite clear
that there were two good reasons for the attitude of
Justinian so absurdly exaggerated in the previous
sentence. (a) Confident in the majesty and the
mission of Rome, he believed it possible to reduce
all barbarians into humble vassals of the empire. Evi-
dence of this will be seen in the division which treats
of the Eastern nations : it seemed a consistent aim
of these two reigns (518—565) to infeudate, as it were,
those kings, whose people could never become im-
mediate subjects, and bind them by titular dignity
and costly gifts to a certain loyalty. But a far more
serious reason existed : (/3) he had no forces at his dis-
posalio repel these migrants and unwelcome visitors.
No doubt he overestimated his resources at the
opening of his reign ; and it is clear that the capital
and the neighbouring district were inadequately pro-
tected ; that the double line of fortress-defence along
the Danube was powerless to keep out intruders.

For (2) the fortifications on the frontier were a special
feature of Justinian's policy. He preferred to guard
rather than waste human life ; and the very system

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 47

which earned a warm and apparently sincere approval (ii.) External
in Procopius' official work on Edifices is held up to de- ^fo^am of
rision in the Anecdota as a purposeless waste of money, fortresses

(3) He starved the soldiers (§ 24) and the military ^^
chest. Here again we can find a mixture of definite (3) Deficient
intention and sheer necessity. He could neither s^PP°rt °f
maintain nor control the armies which were de-
manded by his active campaign and national defence.
The unrestrained supremacy of the army meant the
triumph of the barbarians; and statesmen had not for-
gotten Gainas and Tribigild under Arcadius : perhaps
some turned over the cryptic pages of Synesius'
political allegory. The Prefect controlled the com-
missariat, dissuaded from ambitious expeditions, and
distrusted the several foreign contingents which
obeyed a native captain and cared little for the policy
or the subjects of the empire. The effective forces
of a vast territory shrank to a figure incredibly
small ; and after the great reaction which nullified
the rapid successes of early years, hasty levies and
private enterprise became the sole resource. The
straitness of the exchequer and the jealousy of the
civilians amply accounted for the imperfect system
or the often trumpery make-shifts of national defence.
Here, again, the prince, with the best intentions in
the world, was the helpless creature of circumstance.

There is besides one further count in our f ormid- (iii.) Internal

able indictment, trie centralising tendency which sup- Pph^:

. ' f . r, Jealous cen-

pressed the privileges of the Senate, persecuted and tralisation

confiscated the persons and estates of senators, and and curtail-
abolished municipal franchise and the faint remnants
of local spirit. We know that under Justinian the
cleavage between citizen-contributors (uTroreAeF?) and
the official world became intensified; and every
authority that did not depend directly from the
centre was suspected and curtailed. Thus the Greek
garrisons were disbanded ; the populace was disarmed ;
and (though this point is exceedingly obscure) some
further blow was struck at the freedom of borough

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

(iii.) Internal
policy :
Jealous cen-
tralisation
and curtail-
ment of
franchise.

Modern
critics at
fault.

J.'sacts:
their excuse
and motive.

towns already weakened by the bureaucratic methods
of Marinus the prefect of Anastasius. It is exceed-
ingly difficult to criticise when evidence is both slight
and conflicting. Can we blame the monarch of a
State, whose whole aim is conservation and order, if
he confines the use of weapons to a responsible class
of police-sergeants and soldiers ? Is it not con-
ceivable that at no very distant date the most rudi-
mentary needs of government will oblige the freest
and the most absolute States in the world, England
and Russia, to disarm the great proportion of their
subjects under the severest penalties ? Did the be-
haviour of the circus-factions justify the prince or
his advisers in leaving further temptations in the
hand of turbulent partisans ? It is quite possible to
draw up a damning charge, as Mr. Gladstone did in the
very similar case of the Neapolitan prisons, from
the ideal standpoint of a generous but ignorant
Liberalism : Justinian may be represented as the
wanton murderer of public liberty and local fran-
chise, the jealous suppressor of free-thought in the
Platonic Schools, the vindictive tyrant who abolishes
the consulate because it was an abiding witness to
long-lost freedom.

But all this righteous indignation is wide of the
mark. Where we know so little of circumstances and
policy, we must withhold our judgment ; yet it is
easy to supply a ready and perhaps superficial
reply to each of these counts. Local liberty
(whether of assembly or self-defence) was a mere
pretext (we may say) for feudal lawlessness, or muni-
cipal corruption, or civic tumult. The lecture-halls
of Damascius at Athens were already silent, and we
must pardon Justinian if he shared a belief common
to all governments until quite recent years, that they
are responsible for the souls of their subjects and
the spiritual belief which will save them from perdi-
tion. The abolition of the consulate was a welcome
end to unmeaning parade and needless expense : the

CH. TI THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 49

proud name itself, a mere synonym for a lavish dole, J.'sacts:

brought no tender memories of Brutus or Poplicola their excme
f _ „, . . and motive.

to the populace of Rome or Byzantium.

In conclusion, we can easily detect the truth Real char-
underlying this savage attack. Justinian was amiable ^peror
and conscientious, but vain, easily led, and sadly emerges
ignorant (like most absolute rulers) of the real state ^/t//™m

® \ ' Jrrocopius

of affairs. He was an "innovator" (§ 1 1), because, like diatribe*
Rameses of Egypt, he wished to see his own name
on new institutions or offices, and desired to leave
his own permanent stamp on the Commonwealth for
which he toiled with such unsparing industry. For
the Roman world was in a transitional stage, and
the sixth century was marked by a wholesale dis-
appearance of archaic elements, — of culture, nation-
ality, ideals, methods, and religion. It is doubtful if
any one else could have succeeded better where
Justinian failed. The Teutonic monarchies of Africa
and Italy were already doomed when he set out on
his costly enterprise of recovery. He held the
Colossus together, whether for the good of mankind
or not, I cannot say ; there are no general principles
acknowledged in the sphere of government and
politics to which I can refer, nor can I plead a moral
conviction in a matter where the special needs and
circumstances vary from age to age, and where con-
scious human effort or wish has so scanty a result.
But one is happily permitted to say this much of a
great and noble character, with complete assurance ;
he followed the path of duty and conscience and
honour, where these ideals seemed to beckon him ;
he bestowed ungrudging personal service and sleep-
less vigilance upon a task that (as he believed)
Heaven itself had set him ; and he cannot be blamed
if the weight and burden of empire overtaxed his
strength and his capacity. No criticism of the closet
can deprive him of the undying honour and the un-
challenged place which he occupies and will always
retain in the imperial series.

VOL. II. D

50 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

EVIDENCE FROM THE CONSTITUTIONS OF JUSTINIAN

(535-565)

THE EMPEROR AND HIS OFFICIALS

(C)J. judged § 1. We may now ask what was the ideal of
by himself. sovereignty and government which floated before the
mind of Justinian, never lost sight of though never
to be realised in fact. His absolute power, by which
alone he believed that the general welfare could
be secured, resembled that of the French Bourbons
or the monarchy of Frederic the Great. The State
was embodied in his person and his will, but this
supreme majesty was neither mute nor uncommuni-
cative ; it condescended to explain its motive, as in
the humanitarian preambles of French law, and to
justify its authority as the servant of the public, en-
trusted with the care of ruling by God's will and the
popular choice. Justinian is continually pleading
the greatness of his task, the needs of the State, the
distress of his exchequer, the misrule of his officials.
He has no misgivings in his mandate ; he receives
instructions from above and from below. He is the
vicegerent of God and the first magistrate of the
people. It will be well to see in what light he re-
garded his heavy and responsible duties, and what
convictions sustained him in his arduous task and
continual disappointments.

(a) His con- (a) The Imperial Position. — There is no doubt about
ceptionofhis the popular character of Caesarism; the emperor is
universal the people's delegate or tribune to keep them in
supervision, peaceful plenty and save them trouble, Nov. 16;*
to watch over the worldly interests, as the priest-
hood over the spiritual welfare of the subject-class,

i Ed. Leipzig 1881, Zach. von Ling. : " We watch night and day coun-
selling our subjects' good" (Virus &v -xf^ffrbv re K. aptanov 6e<£ irap1
ijfjiuv TOIS VTnjKbois bodeit] . . . (bare rofa fyter^oovs irirrjKbovs kv eviradelq.

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 51

N. 1 2 ; l to restore the old paths and keep precedent (a) His con-
alive, N. 21, p. 136 ;2 to respect the individual ^'?n °/*
citizen without endangering the general good, N. 21, universal
p. 137 ;3 to carry out Heaven's will in making men supervision.
good, N. 28,* p. 4i3,5 extirpating heresy and root-
ing out all occasion of evil or secret sin ; to keep off
false and malignant charges from the innocent, N. 38,
p. 23o;6 to replace the oversight or carelessness
of past emperors, and to meet any sudden crisis,
watchful and prepared, N. 9, p. 17 ;7 to put away
any grievance between army and people, N. i5o,8
or (what might be still more difficult) between tax-
payers and collectors, N. 152, p. 280 ; and, most
important of all, to insist on unity of religious

1 " Two greatest gifts of the heavenly mercy to man (ieputrvvi) re K.
/3a<nXe£a), the one ministering in things divine, the other ruling and taking
care of human affairs (T&V dvdpuirtvuit ^dpxovffd re K. eTrt/^eXou^vr?) ;
both issue forth from the same source to adorn human life (&c ytttas re K.
rrjs O.VTTJS dpxrjs fKarepa irpotova-a) • and no aim is so dear to sovereigns
(•n-epicriroijda<TTov fia.(n\evaiv) as the holy dignity of priests. For true har-
mony will arise in the State, if the one be always blameless and enjoy free
speech to heaven, while the other rule aright the Commonwealth entrusted
to it" (dpdus re K. TrpoffyKOVTUS KaTa.KO<TfJi,oiri rty irapadode^av

2 The Mandata Principis (address. Tribonian) in a Latin preface;
nobis reparantibus omnem vetustatem jam deperditam jam deminutam.
8 $<T7rep yap rails idiurais ddtKOVfi^voi-s f$or)dov/j.ev, oi/rw K. TO dr)[j.6<riov

4 " It is obvious to all right-minded and sensible men that our whole
end and prayer is, that the subjects whom God has entrusted to our care may
live well, and find favour with Him " (Tratra rjfuv (nrovdy K. f\>xn rb robs
iri(TTevdti>Tas rjfjuv irapa TOV 9eoO /ca\<2s pi.ovv K. TTJV avrov evpeiv evjj.tveia.it).

8 Constit. 66 : the date at which 6 0e6$ rots 'Pw^aiw^^TrcVT^cre Trpdyfj.a<ni>
(cf. exord. N. 103, vol. ii. 42). ->

6 rj/Jiuv Sia TOUTO K. TTOVOVS viroffTavruv K. datrdvijs
'iva n't) nvi r&v 7]/J,eT. vin}Kbwv rts <TVKO<j>avTia K.

7 535 A.D. '~Evr)ffxo\ tj/Jifrois r)p.lv irepl ras awdffrjs iroXireias (ppovriSas K.
ovdev alpovfjL^vois tvvoeiv dXX' tiirus Htpvat fjiev ripefAoiev EavStXoi
Se ffiiv M.avpovcrioLS vtraicoijoiev Ka/JXT/Sov^oi de TTJV iraiKaiav diro\a^6vTes
e-)(o^v tXevdepiav Tfavoi re vvv irpQ/Tov vwb TTJV 4Paj/ua/wi' yevbfjLevoi iroKireiav
ev vTnjKbots Te\o1ev . . . firipptovffi K. ISiwriKal QpovTtdes Trapa rwc

545 A.D. liepl Trap6dov liTpanwrwv ...£&<$ dfyftlovs 0i;X<£rre(r^at

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

(a)Hiscon-

universal
supervision.

belief, the very foundation of the State, NN. 147,*
i29.2 He often refers to the ample increase of
territory which God has given him ; all his subjects,
new as weu as o\^ are a sacred charge in which
the purpose of Heaven is clearly manifest, N. 93,
p. 5 1 1 ; 3 and it behoves him to take care of the
smallest detail of government, N. 96, p. 529.* The
Roman Commonwealth is not a makeshift or a
compromise, but the final form of polity, approved
by God ; he prays that it may be eternal, N, 66,
p. 4i2.6 It throws back its roots into the dim past :
he himself is a descendant of ^Eneas ; the second
founders of the kingdom were Romulus and Numa ;
and the third or imperial phase was introduced by
Augustus, when by a necessary transfer made with
all goodwill, the Senate (N. 80-8 1), hitherto execu-
tive as well as consulting or advisory body, gave up
their accumulated prerogative into a single hand.
It has two chief aims, mercy and freedom ; for all
its laws are directed to kindliness ((piXavOpwTria),
N. 71, p. 43 1,6 and liberty, N. 70, p. 42 2. 7 Under-

1 " First and greatest blessing to all men we believe to be the ortho-
dox confession of the true and blameless creed of Christians (opdrjv
6fj.o\oyiav), so that in all ways it may be strengthened, and that the holy
bishops throughout the world should be united in harmony (els 6/j,6voiav
ffvva<p07)vai), and believe and preach the right faith with one voice
(QUORUMS) , and that every pretext of the heretic be taken away." With
these conscientious convictions as to a ruler's duty Justinian's Caesaro-
papism needs no further justification.

2 " We believe hope in God to be the sole aid for the whole life of our
commonwealth and realm, knowing that this gives salvation of soul and
safety of empire, so that it is fitting that all our legislation should depend
on this alone, and look continually to this end ; for this is the beginning,
the middle, and the conclusion of our laws."

3 538 A.D. rots vir?]K6ois oiroffovs ij/juv 6 6ebs irpbrepbv re TraptSwice K.
Kara (AiKpov del vpoffTidn^ffL.

4 He begins his Constit. on Alexandrians and Egyptian prefectures,
el K. TO, (rfj.iKp6Ta.Ta T&V irpayfj,d.T(t)v TTJS eavTuv dj-iovjjLev irpovolas TroXXy
/j.a\\ov TO. /A^yicra, /crX.

5 ra rplTa irpoolfjiia . . . Trjs jSa<ri\e/as (Julius and Augustus), oiiru
Tyv -irdKiTeiav ijfj.iv t&vpriffei TIJV vvv KpaTOvaav, etrj 5" AQdvaTOS, e£ ticdvtav

TTpOLOVffaV.

6 537 A.D. tirelSrf irpbs <j>i\a,vd puirlav airas TJ/JUV r? i/6/*oj

(\fvdeplas yap

v6fj.ov.

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 53

stood and implicated in all this was the duty of an (a) His cow-
unceasing vigilance in controlling the agents of ceP^n °f 'his
government ; and it is on this side that Justinian universal
has to admit his failure. supervision.

(/3) Official Misdemeanours. — The policy of the early (0) Difficulties

fourth century was (as we have seen) to sever offices, of this claim;

J ' . .the bureau-

to create a number of new posts, to divide responsi- Crats out of

bility, and to interest as large a proportion as possible hand-
of the inhabitants of the empire in the duties and
emoluments of government and the maintenance
of public order. This proportion might rival that
which exists to-day in the similar governments of
Russia or France, both happy hunting-grounds for
obscure and underpaid officialism, which is the real
danger in the socially democratic State. The result
had been eminently unsatisfactory. Each limited
command became an area for petty misdemeanours
and peculation. It was impossible to arouse in
these low-born and selfish functionaries a sense of
public duty. A hereditary noble (like a national
sovereign) has everything to lose by disregarding the
popular will or welfare. The whole system of the
early Roman patronate was built on this sensitive-
ness of privilege and dignity ; Lydus deplores the
decay of this generous hospitality among the Roman
politicians, and it had without doubt ceased to char-
acterise social intercourse. The State confronted
the unit directly ; and intermediate modes of bene-
volent activity vanished. But in aiming at this
proud title of Universal Provider of Happiness, the
Republic forgot into what hands the effective con-
trol was falling ; and the people at large became
the prey of ignoble agents, without sense of dignity
or personal honour, concerned only in spoiling
the poor or the defenceless rich, and courting the
favour of the rank immediately above them in the
Hierarchy.

The aim of Justinian was to retrieve the errors of
the Constantinian system, which had reduced the exactions.

54 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

Their in- prince to a puppet, under pretext of increasing his
Power> anc* nad zealously extinguished a nobility either
of the sword or of the robe. He desired to enhance
the dignity of office, to make the wearer conspi-
cuous and therefore open to the influence of public
opinion. He was at least well aware of the mockery
of the title, "responsible government." He well
knew that the emperor alone was really responsible
for all his servants' faults ; and was held to ac-
count for every miscarriage of justice or inequitable
tax. Yet the great body of administrators formed a
privileged corporation, sworn to defend its members,
to deceive the emperor, and to plunder the sub-
jects. To relieve this, Justinian proposed to raise
the position of the provincial governor, and to unite
under his sole authority the various staffs or retinues
(officium, ra£*?), which had secured impunity for
petty pilfering in the envious subdivision of control.
Something analogous to extra-territorial and foreign-
consular jurisdiction would seem to have existed ;
acrvXov, aSucoi TrpocrTdcrtat, N. 5 and 6.1 It is clear
that local senators (eiri-^pioL /3ov\€vrai) secretly
purchased indemnity for wrongdoing and oppressed
lowlier neighbours, N. 6.2 An unjust official as John
in the Hellespont could commit great injuries before
justice could be taken, N. 37.° A vague and im-
personal complaint runs through the Constitutions
for the provinces, that magistrates and officials op-
press the people, N. 53, p. 357,4 and despise

1 534 A.D. airayopevffai irdffi rots . . . eirapxt&v &pxovffi \byov
iraptx€iv ^ Sij/Aarfcus atrlais, but for private purposes only, and then for
a strictly limited period.

2 He calls it their plot (eirifiovXT)), and insolence (dpa.fftr'rjs), whereby
they retire to sacred places and defy justice, retaining public moneys
in their hands (TCI, bii/j-uffia tv X€Pff^ Aa/^Sdveiv, ^ffu iep&v

3 This official on pretext of rate-collections (irdXtTiKwv irbpwv ifroi . . .
ff6\€fj.i>lui>) went to every length of robbery (otSev&s a,Tr£ffx€TO T&v ^
apirayyv ^x^r^v yKforw), bringing his wealth to our blessed city and
leaving all penury in Hellespont.

4 536 A.D. He raises the status of the Arabian Moderator, so that he
may defend the subject from the official exactions of subordinates,

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 55

justice, N. 89, p. 494,1 being themselves the worst Their in-
offenders, N. 38, p. 227," and N. 44, p. 264.3 The
capital was crowded with litigants, who despaired of
redress before any local tribunal, N. 103 4 (II. 44).
The rule which obliged a governor to wait in his
province fifty days after the expiry of his term was
constantly violated, N. 117 ; and at the very close of

7-775 T&V ISiurwv u>0eXe£as, /AT; ' avyxwpeiv TV TeptjSX^Trry Aovid ^njre r<p
<f>v\dpx({> (the Saracen chief) /xr/re nvi rCiv Svvaruv oif/cow d\\a nrjre r$ deiy
iraTpifj.ovl({) r) TOIS 0etois ^/xcSv TrpijSdrots ?) cti/nj? ry dely ijfiuv ol'/cy rrjv ol
avovv tirayayflv TOIS TJ/J,€T. virortKevt frfj.iav, [Ai]8£ KaraK\iv€<rdai paStws /j-ydt
Tpt/j.€it> dXX' dvSpeiws ru>i> vTrrjKduv £t-i}yeiff6ai. In this important passage
Justinian asks him (like the old Defensor] to save the subjects from every
oppression, explicitly naming not merely the military Duke, the Saracen or
Bedouin chieftain, the rich landlords with their strong retinues, but the
accredited agents of the imperial estates themselves, and, if we are right in
so interpreting, even from members of the imperial family : he is to show
no respect of persons but stand up boldly against injustice.

1 538 A.D. "Justice the unique or basal virtue, without which the others
lose their merit, especially that courage to which our ancestral tongue has
given the name virtue exclusively (irdrptos <puvTj). TatiTijv, he continues,
tv rats -^/-cer. tirapxia-is opuvres irapewpafdv'qv . . . avafipwcrai . . .

2 535 A.D. Wherein he appoints prcetors for the people of the capital.
He restricts the high office (of Stipendiary Magistrate) to the highest rank
and most exemplary probity ; it is to be given gratuitously, and furnished
with a paid assessor (TrdpeSpos). We have learned that these officers have
hitherto had most undesirable retinues (irpbs virovpyiav elvcu rdy/jara
Trovrjpa Xj7<rT07V(6crras re K. /3eve0iaXfoi/s (poison-experts) ), and a crowd of
such like who deserve to be punished themselves rather than serve the
ends of justice [rendering probably corrupt]. For this class of thief-
takers or recognisers exist for no good purpose at all, but they tell the
criminals (yivd<rKov<ri rovs KX&rras) for this one purpose, to hunt profit
(and hush-money) for themselves and their officers (who are quite as much
to blame). In effect, they resembled the New York police.

3 T6 ij£v y&p tirirpbiruv K. r&v rpaKrevruv 6vo/j.a of>5' elvai. iravTeXQs
(3ov\6/j.e6a (he is remodelling the proconsular government of Cappatiocia,
536 A.D.) Tr/aos TO, Zfj.Trpoa'dev P\£TTOVT€S Trapa.5eiyfji.aTa K. rty iroXM]v aiiTuiv
^TT'flpet.av ty rots d#X£ots tirijyoi' (rvvT^Xeffiv.

4 His language here throws a strange light on the suspicions and dislike
shared by prince and people alike towards the official class ; el <rvfj.prj TIVI
TU>V i]/j.€T. btrrjKbwv ev inro\pia ^xfiv r°v &pxovra> the bishop must consult
with the governor to arrange matters ; to prevent costly delay in the
capital owing to a well-justified distrust in local equity, tva fjtij airo\in-
Trav6/j.evoi r&v Idluv irarplSuv K. avrol dwl j-frijs KaKoira8Cj<n K. ra IT pay para.
avr&v jSXdTTTTjrat. A special section is devoted to an appeal to the bishop
if it happened that any of our subjects suffered injury (dSuc^i/cu) at the
hands of his excellency the governor himself (\afAir pvrarov).

56 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

J. reduces his reign, N. 166 (II. 378),1 Justinian repeats the
{TimtUution old indictment of official extortion, and sadly con-
to office, f esses that his efforts have been of little avail. In
order to remove all excuse for malversation, he
corrects the table of fees payable to court-notaries
on promotion, which like the necessary payments
before ecclesiastical preferment in the Anglican Church
were a constant source of friction and complaint.
These fees were now statutably fixed, N. 16 ; an oath
against official Simony was to be administered, N.
1 6, I23,2 and no one was to purchase a post under
abolishes government, because places of trust were to be
Vicars, gratuitously bestowed on merit, and merit alone. No
governor might send a vicar or delegate to exercise
his functions, and the emperor wishes to remove and
abolish altogether the hated name of deputy (ro-
?), N. 1 66 (II. 376).3 Where civil and mili-

1 "This too has come to our knowledge (556 A.D.) that some of the
governors of provinces are carried along such sacrilegious paths on the
plea of filthy lucre that [without fees] ithey allow neither testaments to
be made or published, nor marriage nor interment to take place."

2 The prototype perhaps of our ecclesiastical oath on Institution to
a Benefice: the official swears severally by the Persons of the Trinity,
by the Blessed Virgin, by the four Gospels "which I hold in my hands,"
and by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, to be a good official, and send
away none of the profits to others : &<nrep &ni(rdov irapt\a.p<>v r^v apxty,
ofirw K. KaBapbs Trepl TOJ)S viroreXels, satisfied with the stipend apportioned
to my office out of public funds.

3 He prohibits all vicars, jSio/cwXCrcu, and \y<rTodiwKT<u. No political or
military official is to perambulate the province without urgent cause
(irepufrcu rty tirapxiav). [These tours or progresses were clearly an in-
fliction.] They are expressly forbidden to burden the subject-class with
corvtes or forced subsidies, fji-ffre 5£ dyyapdais $ rotj KaXovpfrois ^TrtS^/^TiKots
j) eTtyy oiq.d'/iTroTe ^fjiig. fiapiuveiv TOI)S i]fJi.€T. VTroreXeis, /iiyre 5£ ffvvrjdelas
6vo/j.dfeiv f) Sifreiv . . . /ca06Xov ybp ovSfra T&V apx^vruv, TTO\. re K.
ffTpaTiWTiK&v, frSyfJioiivTa Karot rty x^/oav £xetj/ rotroT-rjp^T^v <rvyxupovfJ.ei>.
If there must be deputies sometimes, let them at least never be called by
this title ; ^5^ Trpdara^iv /my 5' 6i>o/ma ZX€TU TOTroTijprjTov. Twenty years
before (535 A.D,, N. 16 and 21) he had fulminated against the vicars, as we
know, to this effect: otdevl dpxovri . . . tyk/Jifv (whether polit. or milit.)
tKirefjareiv tv TCUJ iroXetri T^S tirapxLas fy &PX€l T0^>s /eaXovjt. TOTroT-rjp^Tds :
those who have the insolence to promote others into their own rank
(efj TT]v eaurwv rd^iv fapipdfav), will now assuredly be deprived of office.
N. 2i,§ 10, TOTTOTTjpijT&s . . . Traffiv dTrayopetofJicv Tpbirois (here too their

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 57

tary offices are thrown together, and the respective raises stipend

retinues united under a single head, the full stipend

rr . ,, . of governors.

of each separate office is to be paid to the new and

more dignified official, that he may have no occasion
to recoup himself by extortion for a paltry pittance,
N. 1 6. Administrators are forbidden to insult the
citizens by arrogant pride in rank or military grade
(a£/a, fyvr]) ; or to sell their favours, N. 16, § 7. He
once or twice sums up the chief duties of a governor ;
first, the inoffensive collection of taxes, next, the
maitennance of public order, N. 2I,1 pp. 137-8 ; and
he enlarges these simple instructions into a veritable
text-book of an administrator, the mandata principis.
His whole aim is to raise the standard of virtue and the
responsible rank of officials ; new titles are invented
and old ones revived (NN. 38, 44), and nothing is left
outside the jurisdiction of the unique authority; seeing
that independent commands artfully created, whether
of soldier or publican, had proved a failure, N. 44,
p. 27o,2 and had either played into each other's hands
or promoted disorder. All these failings of the pro-
vincial executive are found again in the long series of
Constitutions dealing with the changes of title and
power in the chief magistrates of the departments.3

name is coupled with unruly soldiers in the escort, and oppressive tasks,
services, or contributions of the subjects, 5airdvri<ris, ayyapeia, and § 1 1

1 "ETretra (i.e. next after the supreme duty of filling the treasury)
e<m ffk irpovoelv rov /trj rods S'/ifJ.ovs r&v TrtiXewv fr dAXijAots

but that peace should prevail everywhere in the cities, from your con-
stantly preserving equal treatment for all our subjects in this respect also,
and neither for gain nor any predilection showing marked favour to any
party (irpbs TI rdv ftepuv airoK\lveiv).

2 VTTO /miav yap rb irpay/j.a ffvvdyo/JLev tirl rfjs x^Pas °-PX^v) ^va M TV
Siea-Traffdai x^e^fftl (ne is speaking of Cappadocia).

3 These Novels form the most interesting commentary or supplement
to the historians whose meagre details we constantly deplore. At least
eighteen are solely devoted to the status of the governor, N. 23 Pisidia,
24 Lycaonia, 25 Thrace, 26 Zsauria, 31 Helenopontus ; 32 Paphlagonia,
44 Cappadocia, 45 the Armenias, 52 and 67 the Isles (Cyclades, &c.), 53
Arabia, 54 Palestine and Phenice, 79 Sicily, 96 Alexandria and the
Augustal, 158 Pontus, 161 Phrygia and Pisidia. It is not the purpose
of the present work to enter into the details of provincial government

58 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

(?) Counter- § 2. (y) Novel Means to Check the Official Agents. —
poise to Justinian sought help from the bishops and chief

mutinous J

hierarchy in inhabitants to restrain the civilian peculation or

(I) Bishops military tyranny. When Justin II. (as we must
and (2) mag-
nates, again remark) asked the local notables to sug-
gest an acceptable governor for their district, he
was only following and extending a scheme of
which his uncle had set the example. In the same
spirit Merwings, or rather their powerful premiers,
exempted abbeys and their estates from the direct
visit or levy of the Count ; and betrayed, like the
Roman emperors, their profound distrust of their
own nominees. Constantine had wisely seen that
the new and unworldly corporation of the Episco-
pate would be a valuable ally in the difficulties
of government, and a useful counterpoise to the
emissaries of the central power. To them Justinian
entrusted the supervision of his lieutenants ; (while
he raised their dignity, he showed no marked belief in
their virtue). Bishops possessed the right, indeed
the duty, of formal complaint (N. 103, passim) ; they
were to watch and report on the conduct of the
governors ; they confronted the half - barbarian
soldiers, and saw that the peaceful subject suffered
no injury, N. I42,1 150 (p. 264, 266),2 N. 164

already well set forth by Professor Bury, H.L.R.E., and by Diehl, in
his excellent chapter on the subject of administrative reforms. I hope
also to prepare very shortly a detailed inquiry into these and kindred
matters in a work dealing with the Literary Critics of the Roman Empire
from 300-550 A. D.

1 If a requisition (efoirpa&v) has to be made, it must be done without
annoyance to the house (^Sa/iws rots of/cots irapevox^&v), and soldiers, if
they are indispensable, must be old and seasoned, not raw and insolent
recruits (/XT; Acexp^fflw peoX^rrois o-rpariwrais d\\a rots tv irpdy^affiv
rer/H/i^ois K. rty ITO\ITI.KT]V rd^tv ^Trurra^ois). The local bishops must
see that our will is obeyed ; rty T&V etpyptvwv TT&VTWV irapa<f>v\aKTjv rots
Kara rbirov eiriffKotrois re K. d/s^owrtj' trriTptTrct (that is, the emperor ; for
the novel survives only in a summary of its gist. Athan. xx. 5).

2 One aggrieved by soldiers must have his wrongs righted by governor
and by bishop (apparently acting in concert) ; if no ruler be found in
those parts, he must appeal to the most holy bishop of the city, or to the
Ecdic of those country regions under whom the estate lies (^ . . .

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 59

(559J,1 N. 166, 378.2 They had, indeed, to con- (y) Counter-
descend to " serve tables " : for in Italy a curiously pmse. to
assorted committee of Pope and Senate saw to the hierarchy in
integrity of weights and measures ; while, throughout (!) Bishops
the empire, bishops were urged to bring to justice ^agnates.
and a sense of their guilt those infamous merchants
who castrated the young for the service of the court
and church, a class which throughout Byzantine
history was " always forbidden and always re-
tained."

Though Justinian was sincerely anxious to secure (3) Popular
the help of this order of clerics and notables, ™^™sion
he did not venture to suggest any form of popular suggested.
control, such as we attempt to-day with indifferent
success. He might seem aware that a democracy
prefers to grumble at its petty oppressors, or to
laugh enviously at corruption ; and in the chaos of
creed and race and faction, to which only the empire
lent a semblance of unity, a people's painstaking
vigilance must have been sought in vain. Genuine
democracy is the most difficult and exacting, as well
as the most elevated, of all forms of government.

9} T$ frd^ T&V rbtruv, KT\). Justinian ends with ordering the prefect to
make known to the bishops and the civil rulers these provisions for the
security of the subject-class (vtrtp r?)s avrwv d|8Xa/3e£as diarvTrudevra).

1 This Pragmatic Sanction deals with the government of Italy
(554 A.D. ), and entrusts the nominations of local magistrates to the
bishops in conjunction with chief inhabitants (elsewhere called rots
TrpwTftiovvi). % 12. Provinciarum . . . judices ab episcopis et primatibus
uniuscujusque regionis idoneos eligendos et sufficientes ad locorum
adminm ex ipsis videlicet jubemus fieri provinciis quos administraturi
sint, sine suffragio (mi)-litis. (The justice must be a native of the district,
and be guaranteed competent by his chief neighbours, ecclesiastical and
secular ; and the soldier must have no share in his appointment (?), — if
we accept the plausible correction of Zacharias. )

2 iraaav d£ dtSofj-ev Adetav rot's /caret rbv rbirov 6(Ttwrarois eiriffKbTrois K.
rots irpUTetiovffi rCov irbXeuv ra roiaura ^yxei/>?^u,ara KuiXtietv . . . K. TO.
irepl TOUTUV T]fMv /j.ir)vv€iv. Sometimes the local squire or magnate is told
off to spy upon the civil servant ; sometimes the governor is armed with
ample powers against these provincial grandees with their armed follow-
ings (5o/>tf</>opoi) and their insolence and injuries to the poor. But the bishop
is always trusted to prevent wrong and report infringement of rights to
the anxious emperor.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

(3) Popular
supervision
never

Imperial
attitude to
the people,
cynical but
indulgent.

The Roman Empire was founded in a cynical
moment by a master of irony, who saw through
human nature with a keenness given to few. Demo-
cratic in aim it certainly was, in that loose sense
current in our own days, which implies that measures
are directed for the public welfare without respect of
class or privilege, and aim especially at the content-
ment and comfort of the poor. But the empire had
no illusion whatever about democracy, in its high
and ideal sense, which in truth is the only one
admissible. It had no belief in the popular capacity
for the long strain and never-ending duties of the
republican. The people at large placed not the
slightest value on constitutional privilege. They
desired to be rid of a host of bad masters and
incompetent rulers ; but they had no intention
whatever of taking their places. They knew very
well what they wanted from government ; and in
the long and perhaps surfeited silence of these
centuries, we may well suppose they were satisfied
with their bargain. The consideration of the
imperial system for the lower classes is well known.
They are to be amused as well as fed, and delighted
by the gorgeous spectacle of circus, theatre, and
court function. The ruined cities of Northern
Africa clearly show that one chief duty of the
smallest municipality, founded in defiance of natural
law among the sands, was to provide for the cleanli-
ness and amusement of the populace. Christianity
had not, it would appear, conferred on these classes
a marked aptitude for self-government ; it had,
according to some critics, merely made representa-
tive institutions impossible. It might (so they allege)
have been possible to agree on the need of sanita-
tion, public baths, and public spectacles ; but if the
province of government and imperial concern is to
be extended to the problems of the next world,
it is clearly out of the question to allow the voice
of the heterodox to be heard or to respect minorities.

CH.II THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 61

The people's part was to trust their supreme ruler (l) Costly

and representative to do his best for them on pain dlsPl^yf°f

gratification

of dismissal. They were not to be deprived of ofurbanmob;

those costly shows, which since republican times

had exhausted noble houses by the vain parade of

a moment : Justinian introduced a welcome thrift

into these expensive dignities, and limited the con-

sular largess, just as a Puritan and Labour Ministry

might curtail the Lord Mayor's Show. But he was

careful not to abolish these spectacles entirely,

N. 8 1, p. 468,1 and when the last vestige of re-

publican office disappeared in Byzantium, the place

of the magistrates' displays was taken by the un-

ceasing liturgy and ceremonial of the court.

Yet with all this consideration for the " cockney " (2) solicitude
element, Justinian does not forget the needs
the peasant (N. 123, 139, 148 are devoted to
the various problems of agriculture and ownership 2).
And to all dependent classes of his empire he ex- (3) wages of
plicitly interdicts the use of arms, N. io8,3 and has artisan-
no sympathy with the higher wages for craftsman
and artisan, which they demanded after the Great

1 " On the Consular Largess.'1'' He limits this scattering of dole to seven
occasions of pompous exit, et yap TOVTO ^irivevbijTai Sta rb ras #&ij irpbs
\f/vx&y<>>ylav ayeiv rbv 8rj/j.ov . . . ovdevbs rofrruv 6 r^er.

2 Especially in Novel 29 does he forbid the seizure of land for debt ;
and fixes (or attempts to fix) the rate of usury for advances on landed
security.

3 On Arms (539 A.D., addressed to Basilides, Mag. Off.}. The aim is,
of course, the prevention of civic tumult, not suspicion of insurrection
(d/SXajSets K. dveirypedcrTovs tpvXdrTfiv K. KuiKtieiv rods TroX^uovs, of)s £K rrjs
cavr&v dj3ov\tas alpoti/jLevoi rods tear' dXX^Xwi' tpydfrvrat <f>6vovs). The
manufacture of weapons is a State monopoly which may be invaded by
no private person ; and no one but authorised soldiers or sergeants with
license may possess ; § 3. aSeia TrcwreXcDs otdevl ..." neither to private
inhabitants of cities nor husbandmen tilling the country districts (rots ra
Xcopia yewpyov<riv ayp6rais) to use arms against each other and dare
murders, while the exchequer is despoiled of the taxes of those who
cultivate the soil, deserting their livelihood (?) or running away through
panic." This was no idle fear ; the armed households of the great, and
masterless retainers (as in Japan, the lonin or ownerless yaconiri) caused
disturbance on the countryside. § 4 gives a list of prohibited weapons ;
somewhat in the style of the Philistine edict in the time of Saul.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

(3) wages of
artisan.

Wisdom of

these

provisions.

Striking
analogy with
modern
Socialism.

Plague, N. 146 (544 A.D.) ; just as in Western
Europe, after the Black Death, some 800 years later.
— The emperor has been sternly rebuked for both
these regulations ; matters, as the unbiassed student
can easily see, of strict political necessity. Circus-
frays and the Samaritan revolt had made men
familiar with private feuds and vendetta. It was
impossible, with the barbarian at the gate, to allow
mere factious turbulence. The compassion of liberal
or nationalist historians is entirely wasted on a
people, or rather a congeries of peoples, who had
long ago resigned the noble duty of self-defence.
Justinian, who had no reason to trust party-spirit,
who had manifest proof of religious and tribal
rancour, was in every way justified in this pro-
hibition. Nor can we criticise from any modern
standpoint his (possibly futile) attempt to fix the
scale of wages or the interest on mortgage-loans.
Whenever the State is recognised as omnipotent
by popular consent, the Government — Imperial or
Socialist — will be compelled to take cognisance of
such things. Where every class looks to the State
for guidance, aid, and authorisation ; where nothing
passes current without the peculiar stamp of govern-
ment sanction ; various restrictions on a perilous
liberty must be both expected and tolerated. The
hours of labour, the scale of payment, the price of
commodities, the value of land, the assessment of
appreciated estates — all must be submitted to some
final control and central committee. It is not for
us to blame the empire for a system which, amid
some misgivings and protest, is being adopted by
many statesmen " as a panacea for the evils of
Freedom." J

1 N. 60 (537 A.D.), the emperor is obliged to limit the number of
privileged manufactories in Constantinople to eleven hundred, and to beg
the residue to pay their imposts regularly : he says, not without reason, r<£
/caret fUKpbv K. ^0' diravras yirXwffOai TO. 7^X77 ftpa-X^ ^v &J"7"cu rb Trap'
fK&ffTov 8i86/j.£voj>, fj-trpiov 5£ K. Kov<f>ov . . . &ny irapa, TrXeibvuv (rv\\cytv
He did not intend to fall into the later Merovingian dilemma, when the

CH. ii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 63

§ 3. It remains to speak briefly of a few classes in Special
the State on which the Novels of Justinian shed f^8^ mi
perhaps a gleam of sombre light, (i) The military tary.
element is set in vivid contrast with the civilians.
The emperor is much concerned to prevent unfair
pressure on the district where soldiers are quartered ;
they must be content with the produce of their
cantonment, and not demand exotic luxuries from
other provinces ; they must be considerate to the
defenceless citizens whom it is their duty to defend,
not to oppress (N. 138, 142, 150). Justinian is
aware of the debt which the Commonwealth owes
to its gallant (and often alien) defenders : after
heaven, the empire rests on their loyalty and
devotion (cf. the use of the term KaOaxruafjLevoi). He
is anxious, too, that his barbarian allies should learn
to respect the rights of civilians, just as Theodoric
had to defend the effeminate Roman noble from
the good-humoured contempt of his Gothic " pro-
tector " (N. 150, II. 265).1 He does not hesitate
to rebuke this dangerous element if it deserves it ;
he threatens (N. 96, I. 540) 2 some mutinous soldiers
with expatriation to the detested Danubian frontier,
or the Crimea, still more remote ; it will not be
forgotten that this punishment precipitated the
military revolution which overthrew Maurice some
sixty-four years later.

sovereign, — knowing no means of defending the public except by re-
stricting his own officers' jurisdiction, of rewarding his friends except by
lavish grant of practical immunity, — found himself in the end without
subjects, taxes, or kingdom.

1 " These injunctions we desire to be carefully observed in the passage,
not merely of our own Captains and their troops, but of all other forces
sent by us into alliance with our Commonwealth from any nation what-
ever " (^ oiouSijTrore Zdvovs ets yv^o.")(la.v , . . ?re fj.it ofltvuv).

2 "Their splendid tribunes shall suffer confiscation, and their chief men
(let these also beware of decapitation !) and the whole regiment shall be
removed to the furthest limits of the Danubian district, there to serve their
term patiently as guard of the frontier " (rb irav rdy^a fj-eraffrav tv rots
Tro/3/Jwr^/jw TOV . . . Aavvftiov r67rois .... irapa<pv\aKrjs ZveKa irposKap-
Tfprjtrov).

64 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF, mv. A

(2) The § 4. The emperor is frequently engrossed in
Monks.i monastic questions, relating to the order and dis-
cipline of monks in their religious houses. If the
monks will pray, the soldiers will fight well, and the
Roman armies will win peace for the world. There
is an especially mediaeval touch here ; and we recall
the opening chapter of Lydus (which he does not
follow up) dealing with the identity of the magis-
trate, the priest, and the soldier in primitive times.

(3) The § 5. There is frequent reference to the Senatorial
Senate. ciass as well as to the Senate of New Rome. Both

in Latin and Greek (N. 80, Si)1 he explains the
transference to the emperor of the anxious duties of
executive, and makes much of the dignified retire-
ment, which all enjoy but the select emissaries of
Caesar. He takes care that " senatorial estates shall
remain in senatorial families" (NN. 101, 106, 109).
He gives rules for the release from the duties of
this rank (rv^tj, N. 90), the old Latin venia ordinis;
but he will not allow Jews and Samaritan senators
to evade their responsibility (N. 62), though they
might not exercise their privileges. He is anxious
to preserve the deferential distinctions of rank,
though he will not have this carried to an absurd
extreme. For example, the illustrious class (N. 91)
were often reduced to poverty and unable to support
their dignity ; all but the most exalted were expressly
relieved of the duty of employing an advocate (eVroXeu?)
when sustaining a suit, and might appear and plead
in person, if they could not afford the heavy fees,
which, the joy of Lydus' heart, were a bane and
a grievance to a pauper nobility. Yet Justinian is
clear that disorder in a State arises when men
overstep the natural limits of caste, and the due

1 " In the most ancient days the Senate's authority shone forth so
bravely that by its guidance at home and abroad the whole world was
made subject to the yoke of Rome ... for by its common counsel all
things were carried out. But after that the prerogative of Roman people
and Senate, in a happy moment for the general welfare (felicitate Rei-
publicse) were transferred to the Imperial Majesty," &c.

CH. Ji THE ROMAN EMPIRE (535-565) 65

reverence owing to rank is set at naught (afyco/uLdrwv (3) The

Senate'

§ 6. The social and administrative condition of the (^Justinian's
empire has already exhausted more than the space aPPeal to his
allotted to it ; nor have the various questions of the pe°P
country magnates, the vindices, the ecdics, the Defensor,
been treated adequately. We may well conclude
this section, already over-long, by quoting a direct
personal appeal to his subjects ; wherein he exposes
the genuine anxiety with which he attempts to con-
ciliate two ends, unhappily incompatible — the welfare
of the people and the maintenance of the costly
imperial system. (N. 16, § 10 : " It is right that
you our subjects and contributories, knowing how
great is the care and forethought we bestow on you,
should in all cheerfulness pay your public taxes, and
not need compulsion from the rulers, — and show us
by your deeds that you return due gratitude to us
for our loving-kindness. Then shall ye reasonably
enjoy from your rulers all care and consideration
for your cheerful service ; knowing this well, that
since on the rulers' shoulder rests the whole peril
of the State,1 and it is admitted that they take office
at their own risk, it is your part therefore to abstain
in every way from sullen churlishness, and not in
your disobedience oblige them to have recourse to
their lawful sternness, with which it is but right
they should be invested, seeing that the collection
of the public revenue is a necessity which cannot
be gainsaid.

" Listen then, subjects of mine, whomsoever God
has given to our ancestors or to ourselves (N. 89,
538 A.D.), that we issue this law to give and provide
you with all security : ye shall not journey long
and toilsome ways, ye shall not weep over the in-
juries of the great, nor shall ye blame us that we
neglect to help you. But each one, seeing close at
hand and under his own eyes due punishment and

1 Or responsibility for the taxes, S^&rta.
VOL. II. E

66 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE mv. A

(4) Justinian's requital waiting for all his wrongs, will sing aloud

S the 3reat and S°od God' who enliShtened mY under-
standing so as to issue these wise laws." Such was
the aim and such the scope of Justinian's legislation :
his failure to attain this end must be traced to
causes of which he himself was but dimly conscious,
and over which he could exert no effective control.

CHAPTER III

THE ELEMENTS OF OPPOSITION UNDER THE
SUCCESSORS OF JUSTINIAN (565-618)

(Being a continuation of " The Prince, the Senate, and the
Civil Service ")

§ 1. THE death of Justinian was a signal, long Opposition of

awaited, for the smouldering discontent to break privileged

class to

into flame. It existed no doubt in nearly all classes Liberal
of a commonwealth called upon to give up much Imperialism.
for imperialism, and receive perhaps little in return.
But the chief seat of the influence which thwarted
the central control was now the Senate. The
hindrance to the designs of a benevolent autocrat
was found among his own ministers ; and once
more was displayed to the world the peril of a
privileged class, concentrating in itself the whole
power and talent of the State. It is a palpable
anachronism to connect this with monarchical insti-
tutions. The history of mankind shows clearly
that a monarchy, even as a foreign victor, gives to
a people national self-consciousness, and guarantees
them from servitude to " many and fierce masters."
"The truth is," writes Mr. Price in an introduction
to Thierry's great work, " that to the Norman Con-
quest we owe both our national unity and our
national institutions. . . . England was overcome
by the Normans because she possessed no national
unity. ... Had not Anglo-Saxon feudalism been
uprooted by the centralised despotism of the con-
queror, England would probably be broken into
independent States, like Germany and Italy ; or like
France have been forced, at the close of the Middle
Ages, to exchange anarchy for despotism." The

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Opposition of committee

privileged

class to

Liberal

Imperialism.

of Platonic Guardians, the Knights of
Rhodes, the Brahmin or Roman hierarchy, the
Russian official, even the Anglo-Indian civil servant,
and above all, the secret influences of a monopolist
republic (such as floats as an ideal before the
dreamer's vision) — these are instances of the tempta-
tion which besets the most conscientious as well
as the most unscrupulous of rulers. The pages
of Laurence the Lydian show us the persecution of
the rich by the pretorian prefect, the "war against
private wealth," so conspicuous in political pro-
grammes to-day. But in the later years of Justinian,
the rich, identified with the imperial council and
exercising power by right of official dignity as well
as private means, gained in weight (and perhaps in
solidarity), and like the republican senate domineered
over a subject world. We are often called upon to
record the grievances of the noble class under the
firm control of monarchs ; we trace with regret the
mutual suspicions which so often transformed
the Senate into the victim of a persecutor. But
when once the stern hand is relaxed, our sympathy
is at once estranged ; and we feel that for the peace
and welfare of the world, the " feudal " rule of
Senators was neither to be regretted nor recalled.
Law was no longer uniform and supreme ; a large
class of higher and lower officials demanded exemp-
tion. Justin II. endeavoured to enforce the law at
all hazards ; and offered himself as the first example,
if he deserved censure. "To him," says Zonaras,
" came one promising if he were made prefect with
power over all for a fixed time, no sufferer should be
found " (« eirapxo? yevoiro K. KCLTO. TTOLVTODV e^owta SoOeit)
SI topuTfjievov Kaipov jjLrjTLva cvpeOtjvat TOV aSiKovjuievov).
The story, it would seem, is clearly apocryphal
in its details ; it finds its original or suspicious
parallel in the " Arabian Nights " ; and we may
be sure that such a sudden elevation to the pre-
fecture of the city was not possible with the

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 69

careful routine and rules of methodical promotion Opposition of
which then prevailed. "As he sat in judgment privileged

J & class to

one came with a charge against a very notable Liberal
senator (TWV €7ri(Tt]iuiOTepwv crvyK\i>)TiKa)i> eva), whom Imperialism.
he summoned to appear ; but he refused (juLereKaX
eo-aro . . . aXX' OVK airrivTrjcrev) — a second notice fared
no better ; and the accused, scorning it, went off to
dine with the emperor (SevTepov eOero ju.rfvvju.a . . .
KaTa(f)pov^<ra^ «V TO /3a<n\ucov aTrfjei (rvjULTrdariov).
When he learnt this, the prefect went to the palace
and found the king sitting with his guests and spoke :
' I promised, O king, to leave not one wrong-doer,
and my promise I will keep, if thou wilt lend the
support ; but if thou dost shield and entertain the
unjust, I can do nothing. Give them not liberty
to scorn the law, or take back my charge/ And
the king said, ' If I am he, make me descend
from my seat and obey the summons ' (TOVTO . . .
dvvtrOijareTai el KOL TY\V CK TOV Kparovs crov eTTiKOvpiav
AC. Tr\v poirrjv el $e /maXXov airro? TWV dSitcovvToiv

•> $^ >r it ->\ -- < wfw t

ovoev JULOL ecrrai avvarifjiov' rj yovv /mrj yueraofoou 7rappr]cri.a$
rj Travcrov HJLC r^? ap^y? ; K. 6 /3a<ri\€v$ el auro? eyw
(ptjariv, a$iKwvy e^avdarrrjo-ov ime evrevQev). "Then
the prefect made the man accused rise from his
place and follow him, and finding him guilty chas-
tised him with stripes, and to the man aggrieved he
gave back out of the other's estate the exaction
many times over. So that the greedy were afraid
and came to terms with those they had wronged "
(yvovs aSiKovvTa . . . e/coXao-e TCU? els crco/ma TrXyyais . . .
oQev Sei(rdvTe$ 019 qv Trpoalpearis TrXeoveKTiKtj TOV a
ave(TTa\^(rav K. rof? t]SiKr]/uLei>oi$ els <TV/uL/3d<rei$ e
Such, then, is the story ; it no doubt reflects the
current tradition or the character of Justin II. and
his courtiers. We find a parallel in the story of
Butelinus under Heraclius ; and the career of
Theophilus offers points of resemblance. The
colouring is later and almost purely Asiatic, but the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Opposition of
privileged

ClttSS tO

Liberal
Imperialism.

Dying avowal
of Justin II. :

meal power-
less.

plain facts are credible (Zonaras, xiv. 10). The
historian has a favourable opinion of the Illyrian

/'T"\ "\ ' It* ^ '>* *

emperor ( L\\vpio$ . . . «? aTravra TrepioeQos Tr\v
). Theophanes has TO> yevei 0/>a£
ox^u^o? re K. eTrt&ej»ia$. As we can trace some
part at least of the decline to the old age and relaxed
energy of Justinian ; so the impunity of evil-doers
is referred to the seclusion of Justin through ill-
health (vocrepov TW^MV crcoyuaro? . . . Sia TOVTO JULVJ
Trpoicov . . . a?? jmrjoevos OVTOS TOV CKOIKOVVTO?
e-Troirja-e). Once when he went forth he
was much harassed by applicants for redress of
wrong (TTOTC TrpoeXOcav ^va)^\^6r] Trapa TroXXeoi/ a>?
aSiKovjmevcov), whence the avenging of the oppressed
was to him a subject of anxious thought (fj TWV
aSiKovjULevcov e/c&'/c^cn? <$ia (fipovridos). We are re-
minded of Marcian's il Catervce adeuntium infinite"
throngs of applicants with a grievance. The account
of Scylitzes of the same episode agrees in the
general outline, and argues a common source ; he
particularises the culprit as jmayia-rpos T*?.

§ 2. Theophanes, who does not give the legend of
tjjg temporary vizier, gives in full Justin's speech at
the adoption of Tiberius Constantine, to which we
have called attention in the text : it was taken down
by shorthand writers (John of Ephesus), and forms a
very human document, widely differing in its na'ive
simplicity from the studied and eloquent orations
usually put into the mouth of princes by classical
historians. I will quote only the more salient
points : ju.ij etri'^ap^ cu/mctcri. /mrj eTriKoivdovfl? (fiovcov. jmrj
^cocr^?. /mrj eiV e^Opav OfiouoOflS ejmol'
yap w? avOpo)7ro$ errrcucra. KOI yap Trrafcrr^?
, K. a7re\afiov Kara ra? ayuapr/a? /ULOV. aXXa
TOI$ Troiricracri /mot TOVTO CTH. TOV /3q/u,aTOS TOV

KCIKOV avr KGLKOV

Xrou. jULtj eTrdpy ere TOVTO TO cr^/xa o>? KO\ e/ue. OVTQH
Trpoare^e Tra&iv a)? eaura). yvwOi r/? ?? K. r/? vvv el . . .

oXo« OVTOl T€KVa (TOV €lOrlv K. Sov\Ol. . . . TOVTOVS OV$

/3\€7T€i$ 0X01/9 T?? TroXire/a? /3\e7rei$. Trpo^e^e TO)

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 71

<rov. /ULtj (pdvTag [cTTjOaTftora?] Se^T). jmr] Dying avowal

(rot Tive? ori 6 TTOO a-ov OVTOO SieyeveTO. Tavra °J ^ustin H- •'

a* »JL> * * ' a < * * ' reforming

/mauaov a(p u>v eTravov. 01 eyovTes ovcrias, zeal power-

v avrwv, rol<5 $e /mrj r^awn Sooprja-ai. The few-
version of Theophylact (iii. n, ed. de Boor, 133)
repeats almost verbatim, but in place of the meaning-
less [(TTparicoTas] we read oru/co^a^ra? ; he also omits
ovg before /SXeVe/?. And the general sense of the
passage 1 In these broken words Justin warns
Tiberius against his own errors : " Be not made like
me in the people's hatred ( = do not incur my
unpopularity). I have sinned and been led astray,
and I will accuse those who have brought me to this
at the Last Day. Do not be elated by your position;
remember what you once were and what you are
now ; and look at me, what I have been and what I
have become ! These before you are your children
and servants. You see them all before you, — all the
members of the civil order. Do not neglect your
soldiers ; welcome no informers. Do not be led
away by the guile of those who tell you, ' His late
majesty always did this and that.' Learn wisdom
by my sad failure. Let those who have wealth
continue to enjoy ; and give to such as are in need."
Now the charges are vague, and the melancholy
Justin, appeased like Saul with cunning playing
on the harp, must not be held to the letter of a
suspicious temperament conscious of a great oppor-
tunity lost. But he blames his advisers for his
faults ; and points with emphasis to the subordinate
position of the ministers and clergy standing round.
The TroXirela comprises the ranks of the civil
hierarchy, just as later TroAmKo? is opposed to
(TTpaTiwTiKos. One is much tempted to read some
" caution " into the double /SXerrexy ; beware of,
" you do well to look at them." I translate <rot in
its usual meaning, "to thee," not "of thee" with Bury;
and am inclined to attach considerable weight to the
sentence. Can we not read in the text just that

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

zeal power-
less.

Dying avowal insistence on precedent, which is one of the most
; entangling of silken meshes cast by bureaucracy
round the vigorous limbs of a reforming sovereign ?
Any administrator will recognise the tone of the
permanent Under-Secretary in the words : " We
never did so in Mr. X.'s time." For bureaucrats
have a fabulous golden age (like poor Laurentius),
to which standard they coldly refer the proposals of
the new minister, and are apt, with Talleyrand, to
discourage zeal. In the final words we may dis-
cover that, where private wealth still existed apart
from the privileged order, it was insecure ; and that
Justin had learnt by bitter experience that the
« government " was always " against the people."
Theophylact supplies us with a sonorous and peri-
phrastic description of the audience before which
this adoption was made. We remember Galba's
hesitation in a similar case, and the ominous last
decision, ft iri in castra placuit." Here we find Senate,
clergy, and patriarch assembled (r^? crvyK\riTov
j8oyX?9 e? TCIVTOV yevo^vrjg TOV re tepariKOv
KGLTa\oyov . . . aima TO) cTricrraTOvvTi K. TO. r§9
6KK\r)<rlas TrrjSaXia SuOvvovTi). (We may remark that
our author makes a very needless apology for the
simplicity of Justin's words, which he will leave in
all their naked and unpolished rudeness : their heart-
felt sincerity is a very welcome oasis in the desert of
his elaborate periods.) Against this solid phalanx of
indurate tradition or individual greed, what weapons
did a comes excubitorum possess, suddenly raised to
the throne by one who made no concealment of
his own failure ? It is small wonder that Tiberius
Constantine continued this apologetic and depre-
catory tone, and sought to conciliate favour by gifts,
not as Justin advised, to the really poor, but to the
powerful or independent.

§ 3. We may deal subsequently with the eulogy
of Corippus, and the debt that Africa owed to the
Questor Anastasius and the Emperor Justin II. Yet

Conciliation
of local
authorities.

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 73

this keen interest in a freshly recovered province is Conciliation
typical also of his entire policy ; and I may be allowed °
to quote the words of Diehl (L'afr. Byz., 458), because
I feel sure that this partial reform in an outlying district
was of a piece with a genuine attempt at a universal
reorganisation: " A 1'interieur du pays, 1'adrninistration
des finances reorganisees s'effor£ait par une meilleure
perception de I'impot d'assurer les rentes neces-
saires aux defenses (Novella, 149, A.D. 569) ; pour
reprimer la cupidite des fonctionnaires on remettait
en honneur les vieilles regies relatives a 1'obtention
gratuite des magistratures ; pour arreter leurs in-
solences, on rappelait a tous les agents, civils et
militaires, le respect du aux privileges de 1'Eglise et
a la personne des eveques ; officiellement on invitait
les pre"lats a adresser au prince toutes les observa-
tions qui leur sembleraient utiles, < arm (dit le rescrit
imperial) que connaissant la verite" nous d£cidions ce
qu'il convient de faire.' (Zach., Nov. iii. 9, 10)
(A.D. 568)- Hortamur cujusque provincial sanctissimos
episcopos, eos etiam qui inter possessores et incolas princi-
patum tenent, ut per communem supplicationem adpotentiam
nostram eos deferant, quos ad administrationem provincice
suce idoneos existiment." I may also subjoin the admir-
able words of Bury (ii. 75): "A remarkable law of
Justin (568) is preserved in which he yields to the
separatist tendencies of the provinces to a certain
extent ; it provides that the governor of each pro-
vince should be appointed without cost at the request
of the bishops, landowners and [principal] inhabitants
... it was a considerable concession in the direction
of local government, and its importance will be more
fully recognised if it is remembered that Justinian had
introduced in some provinces the practice of investing
the civil governor (who held judicial as well as
administrative power) with military authority also.
It is a measure which sheds much light on the state Episcopate as
of the empire, and reminds us of that attempt of a
Honorius to give representative local government to the

74 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Episcopate as cities in the south of Gaul, — a measure that came too

late to cure the P°litical lethargy which prevailed."
I would only suggest that the word separatist is per-
haps too strong ; it is one of Finlay's beliefs that this
desire for honesty in local administration was disloyal
and centrifugal. I cannot myself be satisfied that
there was any desire to detach from the parent-trunk
or set up an independent home-rule. The only
safeguard was in imperial and central control against
the abuses of men who, like viceroys of old time,
regarded a post of trust as a prize, and sought a
convenient opportunity for reimbursing the price
paid to secure it. We may be sure that this appeal
to local feeling and choice vanished in the gradual
collapse of the civil system up to the time of
Heraclius. We have quoted this passage, however,
not to encroach on the interesting problems of local
autonomy or prince-bishoprics under the empire,
but to show the earnest desire of Justin II. to main-
tain the best side of autocracy. The Novel empha-
sises the large admixture of the clergy in the ordinary
body of government, as well as its presence on
ceremonious occasions. This influence grew and
culminated in the days of Heraclius ; and the patri-
archs of Constantinople and of Alexandria seemed
to have claimed no small authority on high politics
and finance. But as the Eastern realm had avoided
the dangerous support of a Barbarian protectorate,
so it refused to allow the State to become a mere
department of the Church. With all its faults, it
managed to fulfil the modern maxim of all political
theorists, — the supremacy of the civil power against
sword and dogma. Both these dangers of western
and mediaeval Europe recur in a variety of forms ;
but during our period there is no concession to the
independent claim of priest and soldier. The Icono-
clastic movement was largely a recurrence to a pre-
Constantinian policy. And it was this temporising
scheme of Constantine, which, in the age we are now

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 75

discussing, bade fair to overthrow the central fabric. Episcopate as
Powerful prelates and recalcitrant nobles, — here are a c™nter~
two well-known types of feudalism ; and Justin II.,
with all his desire for improvement, had to conciliate
and to make use of such agents as he found ready.

§ 4. The dim records of the reigns of Tiberius II. isolation of
(578-582) and Mauricius (582-602) (who break theemperor:
the line of Illyrian princes) are fitfully illumined by
the tropes and similes of Evagrius or Theophylact.
Tiberius indeed found a support for the throne in
the demes; Maurice reverted to the help of the nobles
pending his struggle with an inefficient and seditious
army. The latter need mean nothing more than that
he kept the civilian supremacy intact, and in the end
yielded to their protests, by a rapid return from a
campaign which he proposed to lead in person.
Historians attempt to give these detached points of
disaffection, union and focus in a legendary public
opinion, which is depicted as austere and unanimous.
Finlay specially oscillates between extremes ; he
complains of the now limited efficacy of absolutism,
or he represents hostility to the government as wide-
spread, popular, and deserved. It is, I think, true that
this latter never seriously existed ; when we read of
the " threatened conflict between official privilege
and popular feeling," or of the " hate inspired by the
administration," we are apt to imagine a concrete
and wholesome body of opinion, — born no doubt in
the higher and idealist circles (where all revolutions
begin), and filtering down, until all classes are allied
in opposition to the ruling system. It may well be
doubted if such a desirable state of things ever
existed. No country has ever been united against
its rulers ; a successful overthrow is the work of just
that small minority which has the courage of its
views and a well-defined programme of attack. The
removal of a king, the exile of a noble caste, merely
unveils the seething animosities of classes ; and after
any change of government, the larger but silent

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Isolation of
the emperor :
no public
support.

No desire to
restrict
titular
prerogative.

portion of the citizens regret the past. In the curious
circumstances of the empire in the closing years
of the sixth century, there is no trace of serious
opposition or of unanimity. Far less are we likely
to discover a vestige of a rival constitution.

§ 5. The noble party, the " Senators/' were pro-
foundly interested in the resolute maintenance of
autocracy. Neither then nor in the Twenty Years'
Anarchy (695—717) is there a sign of later Whig
proposal to restrict prerogative. But they determined
that the sovereign should be a creature, and that a
still unlimited prerogative should lie in their hands.
Nor were they at one upon the right method of
government. The dominant class had lost that
wider interest and public spirit which marked its
councils a century ago. Each member of a dis-
integrating order sought his own good at the ex-
pense of the whole ; alone the emperor, " Athanasius
contra mundum" had a policy. This selfish and
antinomian individualism ran through the classes ;
and perhaps only among the priests rose to pride in
a corporation, for which they demanded independ-
ence. Neither religious dispute nor the factions of
the hippodrome show any serious criticism of the
aims or manner of administration. It is in vain to
seek for earnestness of purpose or combined action.
Political interest was soon exhausted in a vague and
scornful discontent, or in personal rancour and petty
spite directed against conspicuous men. Finlay
oddly represents the exempt classes of " monks,
charioteers, and usurers " as successfully claiming
to be above the law. Now the unique justification
of insurgence would lie in this demand, to make the
law just and uniform and to submit the highest
power in the land to its requirements. To oppose
(as in Russia to-day) an autocracy, largely guided
by precedent and custom and irregular only in the
minor malversations of petty agents, by a com-
plete anarchy, — is a grotesque ambition, on a par

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 77

with the buccaneering sympathies of delicately nur- Private

tured childhood, their fearful delight in pirate and interest and
... . t , ... contempt for

highwayman, but not to be classed with serious iaw,

schemes of political reconstruction. The whole
claim of Liberalism (so far indeed as it makes itself
articulate and intelligible) is that the personal whim
shall everywhere yield to the impersonal or general
welfare, — that law shall fetter arbitrary despotism,
and calm debate shall fix the lines of government
and the principles of justice. No one is clearer than
Finlay himself in making this demand, in showing
the inconsistency of those well-meaning princes,
who while they tried to save autocracy from itself
did not provide an " Ephorate " or a " Body of
Censors " to guarantee the supremacy of the imper-
sonal. Now can it for a moment be maintained that
this disinterested deference to law, absolutely essen-
tial in a free State, was in the air at this time ? Is
not the sole claim of each individual, of each class,
each district, each sect, to be " above the law " ? Is
not the emperor struggling in classic and statuesque
isolation for the archaic principles against pure sub-
jectivity ? The green or blue faction, the monks of
a certain community, the citizens or sectaries of a
distant province, might, like the Nihilist to-day, do
and suffer loyally in the supposed interest of a
fraction of the State ; but a more comprehensive
view of the whole was for ever denied to them.
When this particularist spirit had invaded the once
catholic sphere of the Senate, the case of the State
became hopeless. Nothing could prevent the split-
ting into heterogeneous and unsympathetic groups,
social and regional. And this without any matured
plan or purpose of autonomy. For we must again
repeat that the popular interest was confined to an
alert criticism of persons, rarely of measures ; and
while it rejoiced in every change of ruler, never
elevated itself to a calm survey or judgment of the
whole system.

78 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Complete § 6. " Maurice/' it is said with truth, " causes a

^Maurice to rev°luti°n by attempting to re-establish the ancient
restore order authority of the imperial administration." But we
(600). must be careful how we interpret this. The secret

of the Augustan " constitution " (if we give this
explicit name to his crafty yet beneficent compro-
mise) lay in the control of officials : the one peren-
nial difficulty which meets us under all governments
and is quite independent of the form of constitution.
We do not mean that the already absolute powers
of the administrator were to be increased ; that the
helpless autocrat should have a useless addition of
formal prerogative, the subordinate agents supplied
with larger authority. Maurice desired in a corrupt
and centrifugal society to restore order and control ;
and when law is openly despised or in abeyance,
nothing avails but strong personal power, which
for the time is the sole remedy. Limited on all
sides by "rapacious nobles," an idle populace, a
turbulent faction, and a « licentious army," the prince
saw no hope but in the energetic exercise of his
theoretical but latent force. A despondent tone rings
with dismal monotony through this period, and finds
an echo in the legends of imperial dreams, warnings,
and expiations. The emperor, forced back on the
natural supporters of the throne, found no aid forth-
coming. Had he tried, in his endeavour to enlist his
subjects' help in the work of reform, to establish
a responsible council or representative body, as we
might suggest to-day, there was no guarantee that
this responsibility, this representative character should
be maintained. It was not to be expected that such
a body would be free from the factious group-spirit,
the narrow and religious bitterness, the personal
rancour or self-seeking, — already conspicuous in all
ranks of general society. It does not follow that
out of a disorderly and disaffected chaos held arti-
ficially together, like Russia to-day, a sovereign
assembly will be more patriotic, united, or disinter-

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 79

ested than the society it represents. It will rather be Complete
the focus of the national feuds, the quintessence ^^uricfto
the national disorder. And it is an unvarying ex- restore order
perience that the tone of parliaments is below the (600)-
average level of public opinion ; and is singularly un-
fitted to express the higher and more liberal outlook.
The decisive factor in the situation turned out to be Intervention
the very influence against which Maurice had reacted,
— the party-spirit of the circus. To those who know
human nature (not through supposed representatives,
but directly) there is nothing alarming in this appeal
to the rudimentary judgment of the average man.
The half-constitutional influence oddly bestowed in
the last reign had perhaps a good effect ; the factions
were wanting neither in spirit nor in a certain gene-
rosity. But the experiment of making an urban mob
the arbiter of national destiny has proved a signal
failure. The turbulence of the capital, easily stirred
by a chance word, a clever epigram, or an imprudent
edict, carries off with it as a reluctant partner of its
often sanguinary triumph the silent common sense
and sober judgment of the provinces. Republican
Paris has in this matter no advantage over despotic
Byzantium ; and indeed, in spite of religious cruelty,
the annals of the people throughout our epoch con-
trast favourably with those of most other European
capitals. Their infrequent intervention is generally
creditable and their tumult easily curbed. Yet it
was impossible then, as now, to entrust the business
of the State, either in crisis or routine, to average
good-will or boisterous good-nature.

§ 7. The Senate retires, so far as the annalists Official
tell us, into a discreet and possibly corrupt and
powerful obscurity during the twenty years of under Phocas.
Maurice's reign. They emerge only to be grossly
deceived. The new factor decides, and the people
are supreme. Senate and Patriarch Cyriac were
asked to come out to the Hebdomon to witness the
elevation of Germanus ; and to their dismay behold

80 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Official Phocas crowned ! It is the demes who support,

tradition intimidate, or openly insult the imperial centurion,
underPhocas. and we are reminded by their delightful frankness
of the genuine if unauthorised influence which a mob
can exercise in a despotic State. Again, it is the demes
who welcome the deliverer from Africa, deprived
of political status by Phocas ; and it is the demes
again who join gladly in hewing " Agag in pieces
before the Lord." We may suspect that, in the
savage inquiries into plots and conspiracies, the
Senate, the civil and official class, as the suspected
supporters of the Maurician regime, had suffered
most. And perhaps this curious period of disintegra-
tion and delay could not have found a more suitable
hero or climax than in Phocas. He represents,
what I believe to have been widely spread, a mere
ignorant and capricious subjectivity ; which so far
from demanding the submission of all classes to law
merely seeks to be itself emancipated. Alone in the
fifteen centuries of Roman rule, there is no vestige
of policy in palace or council-chamber. In these
years only does the imperial dignity sink to the level
of some malevolent and suspicious monarch of the
East, living like a threatened wild beast in a dim and
noisome lair and sending forth only groans of rage
and hatred. His reign is the apotheosis of a rude
and blustering feudalism, without conception of
duty, equity, or the trust of office. It is, I think,
possible to extricate out of the scandalous gossip
that does duty for history under the late empire,
and even with the earlier Caesars, some thread of
earnest and serious work and deliberate plan in the
weakest or most vindictive of princes. But Phocas,
whom we will not salute with Pope Gregory's " Gloria
in Excelsis" stands as the mere accident and transi-
tory emergence of the subjectivity which had ruined
the classical traditions and the empire. And it may
be well to close this section here ; for the official
class, cowed but still haughty, only issues forth

CH. in THE ROMAN EMPIRE (565-618) 81

under Heraclius into the light of day, assumes for Official
a time large powers, takes on it the airs of a regency, tradltt°n

. , , extinguished

and is once more rightly or wrongly deposed and underPhocas.

forced into that secondary position which it will
occupy during the remainder of the seventh century.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER IV

REVIVAL OF IMPERIALISM AND OF MILITARY PRES-
TIGE UNDER THE HERACLIANS : RESENTMENT
AND FINAL TRIUMPH OF CIVILIAN OLIGARCHY

(620-700)

Position of § 1. THE spectacle of the demes fraternising with a

Heraclim

insecure.

Herachus £ew Disorderly mutineers to overthrow Maurice must

have bitterly disheartened any true friend of the
commonwealth who was capable of forming an
impartial estimate. It may be questioned if in truth
such a critic existed. Men of all classes seemed to
rejoice at the fall of a conscientious prince, and to
have believed that nothing was needed to restore the
State but a change of ruler. It is very well for
historians of our own time to see in this revolution
the outcome of a grave popular hostility, directed
against the existing order, the ruling and official
aristocracy, the governing party in the Church.
But it seems clear that public opinion was then in-
capable of rising to any universal and collective idea.
Definite opposition was never formulated in terms
intelligible to modern ears. There were no solemn
deputations urging the emperor to change his
ministers, to lighten taxation, or to redress abuse.
The strange sight is afforded to us of a sovereign,
friend and champion of Reform, struggling in vain
with a people who resisted and hated it. The stern
lesson, which brought these recalcitrant and refrac-
tory classes once more under discipline, was learnt
in the scandalous disgrace of the new reign, the
decimation of the nobles under pretext of con-
spiracy, and the menace of the Avar and Persian
invasion. Great public events turned then, as they

insecure.

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 83

rarely do in history, upon personal character and Position oj
incident. Had not Phocas murdered Maurice, the ?eraclius

IIISOMIVO

benefactor of the Shah, war would not again have
broken out between these ancient and indecisive
belligerents. Had Phocas again resembled, in ever
so slight a degree, the usual military ^pretender, he
would have adorned with strenuous virtues a throne
won by crime, and reinforced a nerveless or mori-
bund civilian rule. Few popular cries have echoed
with such wide emphasis as the words which re-
minded Phocas he still possessed a rival : /xa'0e rqv
KaTOLG-Taa-iv, 6 Mai/jO/JC£0? OVK cnreOavev. For had he or
his son Theodosius escaped to the asylum of the
Persian Court, and in the end regained the purple,
is it impossible to conceive a firm alliance against
Saracen zealots, and an impregnable bulwark for
the south-east of Europe ? It was an era, like the
tenth century in Rome, of individuals, not of ideas,
and the objective trails heavily behind subjective
caprice. The annals of the Heraclian house are
scanty and obscure ; yet we need no psychology to
fill up in imagination the early years of the African
deliverer. Did not the official class resume, in the
new security, the old habits of dictation ? Was not
the encroachment on central authority, intermitted
in the terror of Phocas' suspicious rule, resumed
and extended ? There must have been a " political
contest " of the highest importance between mon-
archy and civil "feudalism," which is a worse form
than the blunt but straightforward rule of the strong
arm. Heraclius, in his design to shift the seat of
government, desired to remove himself and the
" Roman " traditions (little more was left) from the
unpatriotic and costly misrule of the Bureaux, from
the peril of the local militia. Disintegration had
already so far set in, that it did not at first seem
to matter whether the fragments of empire were
conveyed or entombed ! Africa had set the
example of insurrection ; and although his arrival

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

provinces
their

Position of was a welcome relief, it was not forgotten that a

Heraclius u foreign » conqueror had occupied the throne, and
insecure.

brought with him a band of foreign supporters.

Officials, Various types and hints of the mutinous spirit

presented themselves ; the Eastern heretical sects,
Egypt, Naples and John Compsa, the Exarchate

disaffection. and Eieutherius, Rome and the pontiff, even the
" prerogative tribe " itself, the Carthaginian province.
The armies of Rome were reduced to a dangerous
private legion in Cappadocia, and the African levies
which were loyal to Heraclius. Cappadocia, indeed,
could boast of being the native land of both Maurice
and his murderer; and the tie which bound these
provincial regiments to Priscus was (as we saw in
the text) feudal and personal. Indeed, we may find
in them some parallel to that Isaurian brigade which
under Leo I. and Zeno (467-491) might form a
useful counterpoise to Teutonic predominance, but
roused a dangerous civil war under Anastasius.
The ideal ruler of Priscus, their commander, was
also the ideal of the now reviving civilian circles ;
a gentle and inaccessible sovereign, confined in his
palace like the king of the Mossyni, bearing the
whole weight of an autocracy which he did not
exercise, the whole brunt of the odium he had not
deserved. Quite like a mediaeval baron, Priscus
bluntly expresses his surprise at the emperor's visit
to his fastness ; ll he had no business to quit his
capital and visit the outlying detachments of troops."
So in modern China, we can picture the resentment
of a viceroy, hitherto a petty sovereign in his sphere,
if a regular system of imperial visit and progress
were to be established. The " Mandarinat " (if I
may continue the suggestive parallel) of Byzantium
equally resented the personal command of the
sovereign in a distant war. With ready foresight
they presaged the extinction of their influence, the
suppression of their posts. If the new emperor
threw in his lot with the military element and pur-

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 85

sued with success a vigorous policy, their reign was Officials,
over. Heraclius, who in these strange years of
dormant energy had never relinquished his design their
of restoration, recovered control over the feudal disaffection.
retinue of Priscus by guile and an adventurous
appeal, over the civilian bureaux who surrounded
and stifled him, by forming a new alliance, — with
the wealth and growing influence of the Church.

§ 2. The Senate still treats with the foreign foe Senate
as in ancient times. It had proscribed Vitalian ^^ .
under Anastasius, and it negotiated with the Persian prerogative

general. The text is to be found in the Paschal reasserted

aunno wars

Chronicle; and it is clear that in A.D. 618 the Byzan-
tine government was a Venetian oligarchy, with a
Doge first among his peers ; or perhaps a Spartan
aristocracy in a peaceful interlude when the military
power of the kings was in abeyance. It is sent
from "rulers" (rwv apyovrav wuv), and it seeks to
lay blame on Phocas and exonerate Heraclius. It
preserves a semblance of Roman pride with a signifi-
cant alloy of religious pietism ; it is not the Persian
valour which has robbed the realm of its finest
provinces, but the righteous indignation of Heaven.
Already appear traces of this triple alliance of
Emperor, Church, and Army, which revives the faint-
ing spirit of the State, gives a loftier sanction to
patriotism, wins back the lost, and strikes the foe
in his hiding-place : makes a soldier's death the prize
of martyrdom (<rre<pos Aa/3ft)/xey /maprvpcov), and tones
the military bluntness with metaphysical ideals (Con-
stantine IV. and the appeal for a trinity of emperors).
Reinforced by this potent support, Heraclius is able
in two decisive measures to abolish the "political"
bread (which pauperised a seditious capital), to
acquire funds from the one wealthy corporation
that remained, and to proclaim a Holy War.

We must not forget that the position which
Heraclius was summoned to occupy bore a painful
resemblance to the majestic impotence of a mediaeval

86 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Senate king. There was no army beyond his own retinue,

resumes ancj a suspected provincial force under a leader to

lprerogative whom he was too much indebted; there were no

reasserted funds in the treasury ; and there was no public

during wars. ^ir{i Qr opmiom Hjs great stroke of diplomacy

created these three indispensable factors of recovery
in a national crisis. The interested and privileged
were terrified by his proposal to sail for Carthage,
and being sobered by the threat lent help ; the
patriarch, whose influence depended on imperial
choice, not on hallowed associations, became the
financier and banker of the great scheme. After
some expostulation, Heraclius was permitted to
head the army in person and revert to the strictly
" imperatorial " tradition, in abeyance for more than
two centuries. He leaves the regency to the now
dutiful Senate, with the Patriarch Serge and the
Patrician Bonus. When we ask for the actual
achievement of Heraclius, we are at first in a
dilemma : he seems to lose more than he wins back.
But he recovers Asia Minor, and Roman tradition
banished from Illyricum and Pannonia, once fruitful
in princes, is to find a home there. Et w yap ?i/
'H^a/cXao? OVK av rjv Aewv. The solid, continuous,
and opulent territory was formally reunited to the
centre ; and we have noticed that Leo's Byzantine
monarchy is strictly territorial, and dismisses distant
rights and prerogative, of which the meaning is
already forgotten or obscured in the rising gloom.
Dependence | 3. The few years after the death of Heraclius I.
are the brief In,dian summer of senatorial prestige.
This body assumes the arbitrament of affairs and
settles the succession. Martina summons a conclave
of Senate and Patriarch to approve the will of
Heraclius, in its way as strange as the testament of
Maurice. But the people, who are also publicly
consulted in the Hippodrome, refuse to sanction a
divided throne and a female regency. Before the
clamour of the mob Martina has to yield, like

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 87

another Agrippina. The reign of Heraclius Con- Dependence
stantine II. was suspiciously short, and rumour of Heracliads
accused Martina of poison. At last, with Heraclius III.
and David Tiberius III., she sat on the throne, only
to be soon exiled with tongue slit, in company with
her son with nose cut. This unique and legitimate
penalty imposed by a Senate on an emperor and
empress-dowager is veiled in darkness. We may
perhaps suspect a strong religious influence behind
the Senate in this matter. Fiery monks made the
most of Heraclius' incestuous alliance with a niece ;
and pointed to the little Constantine (whom we call
Constans II. or III.) as " seized" of the sole right
to rule. No doubt his childish hand signed the
warrants for this mutilation, and he professes his
gratefulness and allegiance to the Senate in language
which deserves to be cited : " My father Constantine
reigned for a long time with Heraclius, my grand-
sire, but after him for a very brief space. For a
stepmother's jealousy abruptly severed all this ex-
cellent promise, and dismissed him from life. And
this crime she wrought for the sake of her own son,
born in unholy wedlock with Heraclius. But her
and her son your most righteous vote under Heaven
has cast from the throne, so that we may not look upon
the empire of the Romans as most villainous and con-
trary to all law ; for to prevent this is the especial care
of your worshipful and honourable assembly. Where-
fore, I beseech you to lend me your aid as my
councillors and judges of the common weal of the
subjects." (xptjcrTOTOLTas e\7n$a? 6 WTpvias (pOovo?
o-uvSiaT/UL^ag TOU j^jji/ a7nj\\aj~ev . . . jjj/ /xaXicrra

TOV TGKVOV t] VjU.eT€pCL (TVV 0€(f) ^fjd)O$ Ttj

SiKdicos e£e/3a\ev, irpo? TO JULIJ iSeiv €Kvoju.a>TaTOv T*\V
fiaari\eiav 'PcOyUcaW. Touro /maXa eyvcoKvia rj vjuiCTepa
V7T€p(pvt]9 <Tefj.voTrpe7reia. Ato TrapaKaXco V/ULGL? e^etv <TVJU.-
Bdv\ov$ K. -yi/aj/xoi/a? -nj? KOivtj? TWV vTrrjKOODV (rcoTtjpias,
Theophanes ad ann., 642.) In translating the some-
what obscure words of the young prince, I am

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Dependence
of Heracliads
on Senate.

Autocracy
revived by
Constans
(650) :
armies and
priests.

inclined to attach more weight than Dr. Bury to
the terms eKvo^wrarov . . . and yuaXa eyvwicvla. It is
recognised (and the old Latin version agrees) that
the maintenance of law and precedent is the true
province and function of the Senate. It was their
duty to keep the succession pure, and not allow a
monstrous hybrid to usurp the throne. " This is the
special decision or resolve of your noble House."

§ 4. We can only judge of the policy and success
of this remarkable prince by indirect evidence. We
are forced to suppose that before he left the capital
to consolidate his western dominions, he had reduced
the senatorial predominance and reorganised Asia, —
in a word, established a military and " thematic"
administration under personal control. The Senate
as an independent body disappears. The ministers
who with individual or corporate influence con-
trolled his childhood vanish and leave no successors.
It has been noticed that the middle years of the
seventh and eighth century alike are under a strong
Constantine, and that both suffer unduly at the
hands of clerical historians. When the "Occiden-
tation " of our Constans (if I may use the term) sends
him on a last pilgrimage of a Roman emperor to
his aged and crumbling capital, he is acting in exact
reverse to his greater namesake of the " Isaurian "
line, who seems careless of the West and the elder
Rome. But Constans is the pioneer, born before
his time, of the Erastian or Iconoclastic movement.
His attitude to the dogmatic questions which agitated
that singular society, and gave it a semblance of in-
tellectual interest, was strangely candid and free
from bigotry. His aim was political rather than re-
ligious in attempting to unify and concentrate Church
teaching. In the attainable truth of speculation he
was indifferent, if not, like Constantine V., openly
derisive. The struggle is now not with a privileged
class of officials, rather with a body of refined
ecclesiastical opinion ; which having once entered

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 89

into alliance with the sovereign in the Persian wars, Autocracy
sought to retain him in permanent tutelage. Neither ™mved by
the African nor the " Syrian " house was sympathetic (650):
towards this belated Hellenism. Finlay may be armies and
correct or merely fanciful in suggesting that the pri
" Roman " Empire ended in the fall of the Heracliads,
and that Leo III. opens the Byzantine epoch pro-
perly so called. But the spirit of the Iconoclasts is
above all things Roman in the true sense ; and their
natural yet practical and worldly piety swept away
the cobwebs of dialectic, and tore the ascetic from
his dreamy lair. This hostile attitude towards or-
thodoxy marks both Constantines, whose aims seem
so unlike, yet were so much akin. The ecclesiastical
influence succeeds civilian or ministerial control ; and
issues in strange forms when it reaches the lowest
and most ignorant order in the State. We may
believe the mutiny of the "Anatolics" to represent
the new and self-conscious importance of the pro-
vincial armies, or a rising engineered by a crafty
priesthood, to thwart by parcelling out the central
authority. It may look backward to the German
armies of Vitellius marching southward to occupy
the capital, or forward into the superstition of the
Middle Ages. But in any event the incident is
curious, and I venture to note it with some care as
an evidence of both these tendencies, — as a proof of
the new alliance of the soldier and the monk, against
a power which demanded the subordination of Army
and Church alike to the impersonal State : for Con-
stantine IV. is fighting against the clerical feudalism
of the West. The story is told by Theophanes (who
copies the lost part of John Malala ?), with the na'ive
and impressive coolness of the typical chronicler :
ot Se rov 6€jmaTo$ rcov 'AvaroXiKwv [first reference in
Theophanes] jj\6ov ev XpvcroTroXei Aeyoyre? OTI e*V

Tri(TT6VOfJ.€V TOV$ TpeiS <TT6^s(x)/UL€V. '^TapOL-^Ot]
OTI /U.OV09 %V €(TT€]UI.JUL€VO9 OL $€ CL§€\(pol

a^iav €i^pv9 K. aTrocrre/Xa? QeoSwpov TrarpiKiov

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF rav. A

The military
revolt (670) :
armies and
priests.

Imperial
prestige
under C. IV.
(680).

TOV KoAooj/e/a? eTpOTrcocraTO avrovs, eTraiveara? O.VTOV?.
Kat e\a/3ev TO. Trpooreia CLVTGOV TOV av€\0elv ev Tfl 7ro\ei
K. JULCTO. T>/9 2i"y/cA>?TOv /BovXeva-aa-Ocu K. Troifja-ai TO
OeXqfjLO. avTcov. EuOea)? Se o flaanXevs CLVTOV? ecpovpKurev
avTiTrepav ev Su/ccu?, K. TOVTO ISovTes K. KaTaia"xyv6evT€<s
ei$q\9ov ev 6<$vvy et? TO, 'ISia. 6 Se /3a(Ti\ev$ TOV$ aSe\<povs
avTov eppivoKOTTtja-ev. The narrative of Zonaras is but
a classical re-writing of this simple story. We may
notice one or two points of interest : (i) The reli-
gious motive of the sedition ; (2) the guileful policy
of the emperor, who can only get his way by craft,
like Heraclius I. in the matter of Butelinus or Priscus,
or like Severus Alexander himself, who can only
punish military leaders by a delusive honour ; (3) the
consultation of the Senate, which, whether to decide
of itself or merely ratify a sovereign's decision, is
always to the fore in the matter of disputed suc-
cession. We may note that the two brothers were
actually associated with Constantine IV., appear to-
gether on coins, and receive jointly the letter of
Pope Agatho. It is therefore not unfair to style
them Heraclius IV. and Tiberius IV. ; and thus six
rulers of this once detested name held the honours
at least of empire in Byzantium, while usurpers
assumed it like the titles Antoninus or Flavius to
secure allegiance.

§ 5. The attentive enmity which looked askance
at the Heraclian family was distracted by the Maho-
metan siege of the capital, the success of Constan-
tine IV., the tributary vassalage of the Caliphate,
and the marvellous recovery throughout East and
West alike of imperial prestige. Distant Indian tribes
had sent gifts and felicitations to Heraclius after
his Persian triumph ; and now, although Spain was
lost, envoys come with tribute and homage from
Lombard and Italian. Even in that dull age there is
clearly some dim recognition of the new and bene-
ficent role of the empire. The city of Constantine
was nearer an acknowledged hegemony over Western

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 91

Europe than she will ever be again. Not yet have Imperial

the exploits of Charles Martel and the alliance of papal Pre^l9e

under C. IV.

Rome and the Franks turned attention to the newer (680).
champion of Christendom. The loss of Spanish sea-
ports did little harm to the imperial tradition ; and
the historians of Gaul and Spain still turn loyal and
admiring glances Eastwards. Isidorus, writing of
the Gothic monarchy which supplanted the empire,
speaks as if the sovereignty, still belongs to the latter ;
the kingship is a subordinate lieutenancy ; "fruiturque
hactenus inter regis infulas et opes largas Imperil felicitate
secura." When for the second time under the Herac-
liad dynasty the Caliphate pays rather than receives
tribute, and John the Patrician, called Pitzigaudes, has
successfully arranged a lasting peace (apxaioyevrjs,
says Theophanes, r?9 TroArre/a? K. TroiXvireipos . . .
7r\a.T€iav eiptfvtjv (pvXaTTecrOai), the allegiance of the
Occident revives : Taura jmaOovre? ol TGL '
oiKOvvre? pep*], o re Xayai/o? TCOV 'Afldpcov K. ol eire
prjye? e£apyoi re K. yacrTaXSoi K. ol e^o^corarof TCOV irpos
TV\V ovariv €0vwv, Sia 7rpe(T/3evT(iov Swpa TU> /3acri\€i <TT€i\-
avT€<; eiprjviKtjv TTjOO? CIVTOV? ayair^v KvpwOrjvai flTrj(ravTO ;
e'/^a? ovv o B. raf? aurwv alrriarecnv €Kvpu>cre KOL TTpos avrovs
oecrTTOTiKtjv eiprjvrjv. Kaf eyeveTO ayuem/xwa /xe<yaX^ ev T€
TII 'Ai/aroX^ K. ev TV AJ<ret. In the version of Anas-
tasius the last phrases run : " Annuens itaque postula-
tionibus eorum confirmavit etiam circa illos donatoriam
pacem, et facta est securitas magna in Oriente nee non
in Occidente" — Yet the duel was only suspended, not /. //. hostile

settled: the reign of Justinian II. recalls the earlier to,0ffiia*

- XL • • • j !_-.. r class (690).

Caesars in their suspicion and arbitrary treatment of

the higher, that is, the official class. For the first
time we read of bad ministers, like Tigellinus or
Cleander, of illegal penalties, imprisonments, confisca-
tions,— among which, perhaps, the most notable was
the whipping of Anastasia, the empress-mother, by
Stephen the Persian, chief eunuch or Kisla Agha of
the palace (rod oe (3a(ri\€(ii)$ cnroStjiu.rja'avTos KO.T€TO\-
6 aypio? Orjp CKCIVOS . . . Tt]V AvyovcrTav irai-

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

. //. hostile

Imperial
control of

Si afilvwv fJLCKTTiyuxrai, Ion's vel habenis verberare).
This minister is represented as a truly Egyptian task-
master for the public works on which the emperor,
true to the tradition of his name, had set his mind
(TOV<S jJiev OTrepas aiKil^eiv OVK tjpKeiTO aXXa K. \i6o/3o\eiv
CIVTOVS Te AC. rov$ eTnWarc^). He incurred the detes-
tation of the " civil " class and made the emperor
detested (els airo.v TO TTO\ITIKOV irXfjOos TroXXa KCLKCL
evSeiPd/mevos jULicrrjTOV TOV BacrfXea TreTroiqKev . . . SO
below of Theodotus, eTryvfya-e TO /micros TOV Xaov irpos
TOV B.). Theodotus, once a cloistered abbot of
Thrace on Propontis (a/3/3a$ . . . ey/cXefo-ro? . . . ev TOI?
QpaKwois TOV (TTevov />tejoe(7f), persecutes the wealthy
and official class ; extracts money by suspending over
burning straw (TrXe/o-rov? TJ/? TroXrre/a? ap^ovTag K.
e/md)aveig avSpag . . . a^ypois VTroKcnrvi^oov). Two points
are to be noticed in this new and unhappy phase
of the imperial " war against private wealth " and in-
dependent social influence — the two culprits, Stephen
the chief eunuch and Theodotus the ex-abbot, were
Ministers of Finance; the one So/ceXXapo? corre-
sponded to the older title, comes rerum privatarum ;
and the other was appointed to the general care of
the revenues, etV TO. TOV yevucov \oyoOecriov TrpdyimaTa,
answering to the duties of the comes sacrarum largi-
tionnm.

Now it would appear that among the silent changes
jn offtciai name or function during Heraclius' reign,
the terms Sacellarius and Logothetes supplanted the
earlier forms which had been in use since the days
of Constantine. And " Sacellarius " is at first an
ecclesiastical office ; so it is used, e.g., of Thomas,
"deacon and bursar/' consecrated Patriarch on the
death of Cyriac in the reign of Phocas. Under
Heraclius, some twenty-five years later, it is used
without further comment of a certain Theodorus
who is despatched with Baanes, " with great force,"
against the Arabs at Edessa, and chases them to
Damascus. If we turn to Nicephorus we find this

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 93

more explicit statement : o-rpaniyov 'AmroX^? eV Imperial
QeoSwpov TWV /3a(TL\iKU)v xprjfjidTWv TajuLiav TOV c°ntrroi °J
TpiOupiov. Suidas (s.v. Justinian) gives him
the same title, and it seems clear that in the growing
preoccupation with matters religious and ecclesias-
tical, the lt Sacred Home" of the emperor borrowed
a clerical designation for his steward. The ordinary
revenue and general care of finance fell to the new
office of " Logothele" accountant rather than comp-
troller (for the Heraclians were their own ministers
of the Exchequer and lords of the Treasury). Both
Suidas and Nicephorus call him rwv fitj/uuxriuv \oyia-rrjv
ov TO StjjULCoSes \oyo0€Tr)V yevucov e7rotVrey:=appellavit.
Zonaras (who is clearly engaged in finding an ele-
gant paraphrase for the rude, common narrative
which lies behind all these writers) has of Stephen,
a-ciKeXXdpios 7rpoe/3\ri6ri, and of " Theodosius " (as he
styles the monk) yevucov 6 B. TrpoeftdXero. — The other
point is the illegal exactions (eiicrj K. aTrpCMpaa-larTws
a7raiTrj(rei$ K. c/crcfya? AC. StjfjLcvcreis Trofouyuei/o?) in which
Theodotus revelled : it is expressly remarked that
his victims were the inhabitants of the capital not
the revenue-agents (oik e/c rwv SioiKfjrwv IJLOVOV a\\a
K. CK TWV TJ;? TToXew? oiKrjTo pwv) . Here Nicephorus
renders the latter by TOV$ VTT' avrov, either his own
bailiff who could not make up the proper amount or,
widely, those under his direct jurisdiction. Clearly
his authority was arbitrarily extended to those nor-
mally outside its scope.

§ 6. I have dwelt at length on this remarkable Ministerial
illustration of the new methods of government, and l^p(!mi
have perhaps unduly encroached on a section set revolt of
apart for considering the ministers or Bureaux of the ma9n^tes:
later empire. But the whole passage (in the general central power.
obscurity) sheds a flood of light upon the unhappy
relations of prince and people, which fiscal exaction
and ministerial irresponsibility were creating. We
must complete the picture by disclosing the dis-
creditable duties of the urban prefect : 6

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Ministerial 777 /3a<ri\iKfl KeXevarei TrXe/crroy? av$pa$ eV
irresponsi- /cara/cXe/cra? eir\ ^povovg ( = for many years) njp€i(rQat
revolt of 7T67roiVe. When Leontius, General of Greece,
magnates: opened the Praetorium, released the prisoners, and
so overpowered Justinian (A.D. 695), this typical
" Bastille " was found full of notable men and
soldiers (roy? KaOeipyjmevovg Svipa/S TroXXot'? K. yevvaiovs
OLTTO e£ K. OKTCO ^povcov eyK€K\€icriuL€vov$, <TTpaTiu)Tas rof?
Tr\€Lovag Tvyxavovras). It seems evident that Zonaras
is led astray when he says, ra? iqfAoariae Siapprj^as dp/eras.
The revolution with its curious watchwords, " All
Christians to Saint Sophia," " This is the day which
the Lord hath made," was by no means unpopular ;
but in origin and plan it was strictly aristocratic. It
did not aim, as in old days, at the abolition of debt,
the arming of slaves, the liberation of common
criminals. Indeed, the Prsetorium was not the
receptacle for ordinary misdemeanants ; nor was
lengthy incarceration a favourite penalty either with
ruler or subject. These prisoners confined for six
or eight years (Leontius himself had been detained
for three) comprised suspected aristocrats only. — The
nominal cause of the rebellion is significant either
of the wildness of popular rumour or the real
madness which had seized the last Heracliad, as it
seized Caius or Caracalla. He had ordered a
general massacre of the city population, beginning
from the Patriarch ! — that Patriarch Callinicus who
had, after a protest, meekly acquiesced in the de-
molition of a church with the words, Glory to God,
who is always longsuffering ! (ai/e^oyueW Trai/rore).
Two monks, friends of Leontius, are prime movers,
and Callinicus comes into the baptistery, where the
people had assembled, to give a religious sanction
and a Scripture text to the insurrection. Thus the
event of 695, with all its dismal consequence, was a
noble and a clerical movement (though behind it
lay the military influence of a late general of
the Anatolics) ; it betrays the unpopularity of the

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 95

stern and wilful emperor. The mob of the capi- Ministerial
tal and the official class were about to throw off {^ponsi~
the yoke. Like Jeshurun, they had prospered and revolt of
grown comfortable. Twenty-two years of dis- magnates:
order must elapse before they again acknowledge Central piwr.
a ruler ; and this episode is important enough to
merit special treatment. We may here dismiss the
general political tendencies under the later Hera-
cliads. Justinian II. is loudly accused of upsetting
his father's foreign and domestic policy (Niceph.,
TO. VTTO TOV Trar^oo? TJ/9 cipqvijf eVe/ca, K. r^? a'XAty?
TToAm/cJ/? eJra^/a? /3pa/3ev9evTa Sievrpecfie. Zonaras,
avTO/3ov\(0<} Tfl SioiKrjo-ei Ke-^prj/mevo^ TroAAoF? Tyv 'Fco/uLalwv
rjyeiJLOviav /ca/cof? 7repie/3a\ev, xiv. 22). We will not
here discuss the wisdom of his haughty behaviour to
the Caliphate. He certainly estranges the support
of the Church and the nobility (now largely warlike
in temper), and thus a union of the two influences,
joined by the fickle mob, was fatal in a moment to
a dynasty which had ruled with glory for eighty-
five years. This " round " in the long encounter
ended disastrously for the central power ; and the
work of rebuilding is all to be done anew by the
next house.

§ 7' I cannot leave the Heracliads without noticing Triumph
the curious and fanciful speculations of Finlay upon ^i
the " Extinction of the Roman power." To him, the official
Roman Empire really ends with Justinian II., and oligarchy.
the rest of our period is buried in pure Byzantinism.
Heraclius must have " regarded himself as of pure
Roman blood " ; and this century witnesses the
gradual decay of the " few remains of Roman prin-
ciples of administration." The aristocracy lose the
memory of former days and a nobler tradition. A
long and violent struggle is carried on between
emperor and nobles, « representing the last de-
generate remains of the Senate " ; so " counsels are
distracted and energy paralysed." It began under
Maurice, and underlay the whole history of the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Triumph
(700) of the
civilian and

oligarchy.

Heraclian house. This opposition was more Oriental
than Roman in character ; and it was " imbued with
the semi-Hellenic culture, which had grown up
during the Macedonian supremacy." Both Heraclius
and Constans III., in their scheme of removing the
capital to Carthage, Rome, or Syracuse, had en-
deavoured to curtail its dangerous and anti-Roman
power. They entertained the vain hope of reforming
the republic " on a purely Roman basis/' so as " to
counteract the power of the Greek nationality, which
was gaining ground in Church and State." The
contest ended in the " destruction of all influence
that was purely Roman." The result was to
establish a " mere arbitrary despotism," differing
little from the familiar Eastern type, and to upset all
those " fundamental institutions " and that systematic
character, which had so often enabled the State to
rise superior to the accident of a Nero or a Phocas.
— Such in brief outline is the view propounded
in a retrospect of the seventh century. And the
historian seeking illumination in the darkness can
only be grateful for the boldness of such a venture-
some pioneer. But the estimate is coloured, and
perhaps corrupted by an exaggerated meaning
attached to the terms Macedonian, Roman, Greek.
He is tempted to give to the Hellenes of the days of
Justinian and Heraclius the same acute self-conscious-
ness and national solidarity, as he was fain to
discover in their descendants during the war of
Liberation and under the Bavarian Protectorate.
He is continually whetting our curiosity by hints of
the unanimous and precise public opinion which
arrayed itself consciously against Roman rule. This
thesis cannot be maintained ; I need not here repeat
the arguments. It is impossible to see the same
irreconcilable and united front shown to Byzantine
monarch as to later Turkish Sultan. I am well
aware of the existence of disaffected and indeed dis-
integrating elements ; but they were not solid or self-

CH. iv THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-700) 97

conscious, and they were certainly not exclusively Triumph

Hellenic. Nor was the Senate of Byzantine patricians (70°) oft
.... . ... .... fir , civilian and

really imbued with a tradition of aloofness and official

opposition borrowed from the older Roman Curia ; oligarchy.
nor with a Macedonian culture ; — nor finally with a
pure Hellenic orthodoxy in the matter of religious
belief. — The empire had created a ruling and official
class, far more open and democratic than exists to-
day in Western Europe, except perhaps in France ;
but rapidly acquiring the features of a powerful
caste, almost of a hereditary noblesse. A period of
security following successful wars will increase the
conceit and pretensions of such a close corpora-
tion. And into it was drawn or drained all riches
and ability and all religious influence ; for the
patriarch and the monk are integral factors in the
situation. Justinian II. had tried unwisely to
humble this official pride ; but the emperor and his
immediate and personal executive stood isolated,
and he had lost the early popular affections which
had so often supported persecuting sovereigns
against the Senate. The aristocracy, neither Greek
nor Macedonian nor Roman, but just a natural
product of an orderly State, triumphs on this signal
occasion ; and the monarchy suffers eclipse for quite
a quarter of a century. One point only need we add ;
the new nobility is largely militant, the profession of
arms revives once more, and the Byzantine aristocrat
does not lurk in a Bureau, but serves in the Thematic
regiments. Elsewhere we must trace the vitality of
the military element ; here we will say in bidding
farewell to an obscure but memorable epoch, that
the Heraclians fell before the machinations of an
aristocracy which had drawn to itself the strength of
civil and warlike virtue, and was reinforced by the
religious sympathy and active support of the clerical
world.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER V

Benefits
conferred by
the

Isaurians :
perils of
Elective
Monarchy.

PERIOD OF ANARCHY AND REVIVAL OF CENTRAL
POWER UNDER ARMENIAN AND MILITARY INFLUENCE

A. THE REJECTED CANDIDATES (695-717)

§ 1. THE half-century covered by the reigns of
Leo III. and his son Constantine V. was without doubt
the most critical period in Byzantine, perhaps in
European, history. These two princes, standing out
clearly from a grey background as rulers and per-
sonalities, deferred for seven centuries the triumph
of Islam in Constantinople. They restored solidity
to an incoherent realm formed of detached patches
without continuous tradition or territory. They
gave back dignity to the central authority. Since
the death of Justinian I., this had been helpless or
quiescent ; or else had struggled against the forces of
separatism, armed with great social influence ; or (as
the sole condition of a temporary power) appealed
to a scanty remnant of " national " spirit, and pro-
claimed a Holy War to save the commonwealth and
its creed. Throughout Byzantine history the home-
government takes its colour and temper from foreign
circumstances. Left in peace without, the adminis-
tration moves along of itself on the archaic grooves.
Like any other civilised society whose aim it is to
preserve the past, not to destroy the present, it was
exposed to the various frailties and abuses which
beset peaceful States. Wealth centred in the hands
of a few ; privilege could defy the uniform and
equitable action of law ; office became a prize ; and
the members of the hierarchy protected each other
and set a gulf between the rulers and the ruled.

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (695-717) 99

The sinews of the State were relaxed ; barbarians Benefits
fought its battles and the commonalty became conferred by
pauperised or enslaved. From time to time, the isaurians:
empire was awakened from this corrupt and drowsy perils of
torpor by real peril. It became once more a camp
of honest and hard-working soldiers under a chosen
and approved leader. The minor figures, the irre-
sponsible courtier, the obstinate permanent official,
retire into obscurity ; and we once more read of the
designs, the exploits, the failures of the hero. Such
a crisis had arisen in the reign of Phocas ; such a
revival had occurred under Heraclius and his house.
The State had no time to sink into a slovenly peace,
when the misrule of Justinian II. and the *' twenty
years' anarchy " blotted out the beneficial recovery of
the Heraclian age and gave some able soldier the
whole task to do over again. On the extinction of a
recognised line, power went back again to its original
source ; the people resumed the forfeited right and
reissued it. The years of turmoil between the first
dethronement of Justinian and the accession of Leo
were by no means ill-spent. If a State determines
that its titular head shall be also its generalissimo
and chief administrator, if it starts with the curious
democratic presumption that any man of any rank
ought to be able to rise to this height, the discovery
of this best man must needs be a violent and a costly
process. The leadership of a herd is settled by a
combat, brute force, or craft. The presidency of a
republic falls either to a general who " pronounces "
against a corrupt government of chicanery, or to
an obscure and harmless nominee who is agreed
upon by compromise. Or again, as in the United
States, the prize is won by a genuine effort of
popular interest, and business is suspended every
five years that the State may choose its premier.
The theory of elective monarchy is, like many
theories, unassailable by logic : if men are equal
and merit alone should be rewarded, tried com-

100

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

petence alone hold sway, the first place, whether
the** ^ °* Dignity or responsibility, should be thrown open

Isaurians :
perils of
Elective
Monarchy.

The

to all. No sacrifice of domestic peace should be
grudged if the best man can be secured. In practice,
it is the most abnormal and conspicuously unsuc-
cessful form of government : it is unintelligible to
the vast majority of mankind, who are patrimonialists,
never understanding a divided and impersonal con-
trol. It rouses the fires of envy and jealousy against
triumphant merit (which in the happiest and most
virtuous community is always unpopular). Yet
at times this struggle to secure the best man has
been an indispensable expedient, especially where
the State is no longer a safe and continuous realm of
peace and order, but an oasis in the desert, an island
threatened on all sides by the sea and often nearly
submerged. Uncertainty as to the fundamental char-
acter of the chief office ran through the imperial
history of Rome. Was Augustus a military leader,
or the president of a free State? or was he some
untrained youth to whom rank and power came as
a birthright ? No final answer was at any time
forthcoming. No definite status was ever formally
allotted to him ; and on his shoulders the whole
weight rested, the credit or discredit, the success or
failure. We can trace without difficulty how the
balance swung at different times in favour of the
dictatorship, the civil presidency, the patrimony. But
the three were never expressly discriminated ; and
this doubtful character marks the entire record.

§ 2. A prince born in the purple, like his fore-
°f fathers for three generations, had been tried and
found wanting. Justinian II. enjoys with Michael
V. the rare distinction of dethronement by the
popular voice. It is often difficult in other trans-
fers of the throne to detect the real feeling of the
people, or the inclination of the still powerful
populace of the capital. But as to the downfall of
Justinian there could be no mistake. Leontius (who

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (695-717) 101

believed the emperor's commission as governor of The
Hellas was a death-warrant) presented himself just ™glu6f8ns °f
at the right moment, and was at once a popular
favourite. With consummate ease the bloodless
revolution of 695 was effected. Neither the State
prison nor the tyrant's palace was properly guarded.
The illustrious captives were set free by a trans-
parent ruse ; the palace entered by a few hundred
determined men. No resistance was offered and
Leontius was lenient to the prostrate emperor.
Once more a general of tried experience had ousted
an effete stock ; the rules had been strictly observed in
one of the approved methods of changing sovereigns.
The sole event of Leontius' brief reign was the African
war, in which Carthage was captured, recovered,
and lost again. Leontius might well have used the
humorous words of an old commander in the third
century : " You have lost a good general and gained
a very indifferent emperor." He had fought bravely
in the early years of Justinian II.; but he could not
leave his uncertain throne ; and John, a eunuch and
patrician, after a first success, was forced to retreat
in disgrace. In Crete the troops mutiny, laying their
disgrace to their general or the emperor. Absi-
marus, "governor of Cilicia" (Abulpharagius), drun-
gaire of the Cibyraeot Theme (at that time exercising
his marine supervision at Corycus), is saluted em-
peror, and a Gotho-Greek is seated on the throne of
the Caesars. John is massacred ; the foreign guards at
Blachern Wall are bribed ; the city is taken ; Leontius
deposed and sent noseless to a monastery, and his
partisans are whipped and exiled. The new emperor
began a reign of great promise. He placed his brother
Heraclius in command of all the Asiatic troops, now
almost entirely cavalry ; he is jULovoa-rpaTrjyo? TTOLVTOOV
TWV Ka/3a\aptKcov Oe/uLGLTcw (Theoph.), or a-Tparqyos TOU
'AvaroXiKov a-rparov (Niceph.). He relies only on his
own family, and he is justified in his choice. In a
war of revenge, Heraclius penetrates into Com-

102 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

The magene and slays 200,000 Moslems : later in 703 he

T695lU69TS °f twice defeats Azar in Cilicia, in the second engage-
ment accounting for 12,000 men. But in the failure
of a direct successor or a recognised line, the throne
was within the grasp of any one, however obscure,
who had the hardihood to seize it. An Armenian
Bardanes (or Vardan), son of a patrician Nicephorus,
but otherwise without repute, believed the promise of
soothsayers and attempted a rising. He was shorn
and banished to Cephallenia. Justinian II. now
returns by the aid of Terbelis " Caesar," king of the
Bulgarians ; just as later we shall see this very
Bardanes supported by the Khazars, and Leo III.
himself saluted emperor by the infidel troops of
Maslema before the walls of Amorium.

Vengeance of § 3. With this unhappy return of a madman the
^storeT recuperative process is arrested throughout the
(710). empire. Heraclius, the gallant defender of the

eastern frontier (if such can still be said to exist) is
seized in Thrace and hung ; his death leaves Asia
Minor open to assault, and Justinian is too busy
with his personal vengeance to attend to the defence
of his realm. It is difficult to know who supported
the mad emperor during his restoration (705-711),
after he had quarrelled with his new and disgraceful
allies. Six years are filled with cruelty at home and
defeat abroad. His only enemies were his own sub-
jects. The capture of Tyana by the Saracens placed
all Asia Minor at their mercy. One band of armed
raiders insolently advanced to Chrysopolis and re-
turned scathless loaded with booty. Justinian was
defeated in person (708) by Terbelis, shocked at the
treatment which his insane son-in-law meted to his
own subjects. The two incredible punitive expedi-
tions against Ravenna and Cherson completed the
picture of the reign and filled up the cup of Justinian.
Against this latter city, to which the Roman Empire
honourably preserved autonomy till the middle of
the next century, he is said to have despatched

OH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (695-717) 103

a monstrous armada of 100,000 men. Elias a Vengeance of

spathaire commands them, and carries with him Bar-

danes from Cephallenia to a safer and more distant (710).

exile. Summary vengeance is executed on the chief

inhabitants for their treatment of the dethroned

Justinian ; but its comparative mildness exasperated

the emperor, who threatened the returning squadron

with the same awful penalties they had been too

timid to inflict. He had now no supporters left ;

and his end was a mere matter of time. His doom

was perhaps delayed by the terrible storm which

burst over the returning convoys and buried 63,000

(if we can credit the enormous total) under the

waters of the Euxine. At this catastrophe, which

must have denuded the empire of half its troops,

Justinian exulted, as if over a notable defeat of his

enemies. The garrison and citizens of Cherson,

realising their common danger, now revolt : Elias

refuses the purple, Vardan the Armenian exile accepts, Revolt of the

and takes the name Philippicus. The Khazars help

them to arrest and imprison a feeble force sent by

the furious prince ; and the expedition sets sail for

the capital, and overcomes a pretence at resistance.

Elias, whose children Justinian had poniarded himself

in their mother's arms, had the supreme satisfaction

of cutting off his head and despatching the gory

trophy to Italy. Tiberius, the little son of Justinian

by his Bulgarian spouse, already associated in the

empire, was cruelly put to death, and the most

sanguinary interlude in the whole of Byzantine

history was over.

It cannot be said that Vardan the Armenian
justified his election as Philippicus. Of his
brief reign no event is recorded, save the dismal
series of raids by Terbelis on the North, by the
Saracens on the East. A facile speaker, he never
put his thoughts or words into practice. Like many
another parvenu, he believed the chief dignity to be
a place of pleasure and repose. Immersed in the

104

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Revolt of the

Armenian

Vardan.

Civilians
profit by
shortsight of
military
conspirators.

pleasures of the circus or the table, he spent the
hoards of the Heraclian house in foolish waste.
After seventeen months' reign he was displaced by
the most singular plot in all Byzantine history.

§ 4. It is the purpose of our inquiry, while passing
lightly over the familiar historical events and record
of fruitless or successful campaigns, to attempt to
grasp the secret motive, the hidden incentive of the
conspiracies or revolutionary movements which
from time to time altered the person or the ideal of
Caesarism. Family jealousy, a courtier's intrigue,
a general's contempt, a people's indignation, — these
are some of the causes which transferred the throne.
But the conspirators of the year 713 would seem
animated by no spirit but righteous anger at in-
competence. They determined to remove the head
of the State : they made no provision, selfish or
patriotic, for the appointment of a successor. The
ringleaders in this short-sighted plot were George
Buraphus the patrician, Count of the Obsician Theme,
with Theodorus Myacius, also a patrician. With
incredible boldness they seemed to have despatched
a sergeant and a few soldiers to seize the emperor
as best they could, and disqualify him for holding
office. With a facility equally incredible, the band
entered the palace unchallenged, found the emperor
enjoying a drunken siesta, enveloped him in a
mantle, hurried him off to the changing -room
(opvarovpiov) of the Green faction in the Hippo-
drome, and deprived him of sight. Their mission
over, the party dispersed : when the unfortunate
man was found late in the afternoon bewailing his
fate, neither the official class nor the public betrayed
any sympathy, consternation, elation, or regret. No
one thought of insulting the fallen prince or of
defending his cause. He was quietly thrust into
the background and disappears from history. No one
appeared to seize the vacant throne ; the city was
utterly unprepared for the plot, the conspirators for

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (695-717) 105

its success. There ensued a scene singular and Civilians

perhaps unique in our history. People, churchman P*fo ?^

0 . J shortsight of

and magnate meet in solemn conclave at Saint military
Sophia's ; and elect with unanimous voice the Secre- conspirators.
tary of State (TrpwToaarrjKpfjTis) Artemius, changing his
name to an old and meritorious wearer of the
purple, Anastasius. The first act of a brief sove-
reignty, not altogether devoid of dignity or merit,
was the punishment of George and Theodore,
whose amazing folly (or pure unselfishness) had
opened up the way to the throne : they lose their
eyes, and retire into exile at Thessalonica. Like
Tiberius III. (Apsimar), Anastasius had the makings
of a capable sovereign. His election represented
the triumph of the civilians ; the military had struck Reprisals of
home but could not follow up the blow, and the
fruits of the victory fell to the rival department. ///.
It is useless to speculate on the cause of this mis-
carriage. But for two years the military leaders
looked on and held their peace ; and the ephemeral
civilian was overthrown by the same mutiny in the
ranks that had overthrown Leontius seventeen years
before. Once more a fleet was despatched against
the Saracens ; this time to the east. Once more a
commander named John became unpopular with
his men, — no doubt because being both a deacon and
the imperial treasurer (yev. \oyo9.) he represented
in their eyes an enemy of the military caste. The
Obsician soldiers are the chief mutineers ; and it
may well be that they had not forgotten their
leader's abortive attempt two years before. Return-
ing to the capital in disorder and without a captain,
they seize on Theodosius, a harmless tax-collector
or revenue -officer, at Adramyttium, and half in
sport and delighted with his obvious shyness and
terror, compel him to assume the purple.

§ 5. Theodosius had been reluctantly pushed
into success which in his heart he bitterly regretted.
The garrison at the palace of Blachern had again

106

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Striking
success of
Leo III. :
support of
Islam.

proved venal and had let in the Obsician mal-
contents, who were bent on avenging the failure of
713. Anastasius II. retired to Nice and entrenched
himself there ; after a fight in which 7000 fell in
civil war, he abdicates, takes orders, and retires to
Thessalonica. Then ensued a brief reign of pious
incompetence ; the clergy at home and the Bul-
garians were propitiated by lavish gifts, the latter
even with some cession of Roman ground ; the
Saracens invade under the Caliph's brother, and
advancing with impunity into the heart of Asia
Minor, lay siege to Amorium. Two linesmen from
Germanicia in Commagene, Leo (Conon),Artavasdus,
general of the Armeniacs, make a compact to relieve
the State. Just a century later there will be a similar
accord between three rough warriors, another Leo,
Michael, and Thomas. The critical state of the
realm may be judged from the offer of surrender
to Maslema, which came from the people of the
interior provinces ; uncertain (amid the change of
policy and continual forays) of which kingdom they
were subjects, they besought him to accept them as
vassals (TrapaKaXovvres CLVTOV \aj3eiv GLVTOVS). It is
true that there is another side to the picture ; on
the institution of the kharidj, known as capitation
tax, among the Moslem, many are said to have fled
into the Roman State still orderly and moderately
rated. But at this time the Roman government
was raising revenue from its subjects without pro-
tecting them ; and the current of emigration set in
the other way. The officials of the capital knew
that nothing was to be hoped from the amiable
usurper, everything to be feared from a resolute
leader of troops. Leo got rid of the half- friendly,
half-hostile overtures of the Caliph's brother, opened
negotiations with the ministers, allowed Theodosius
to retire thankfully into clerical life at Ephesus, and
won almost without a blow, a murder, or a threat,
the most important of all the civil wars of Rome.

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (695-717) 107

It was clear to all that unless a strong hand
and a dynastic system came to the rescue, the
commonwealth would become the alternate prize of
the wily courtier and the bluff soldier, — or rather in
turn the sport of the civilian and the undisciplined
troops. The strangest alliance in all Roman history
decided the fate of the empire. A Roman imperator
is saluted by the Moslem who were blockading
him ; and the cry was caught up by the citizens of
Amorium, wafted to the capital, and echoed (though
not without misgiving) in every heart. The reign
of the great Armenian heretics had begun.

§ 6. The circumstances are singularly like those This
which attended the elevation of the Flavian house
in the first, of the African house of Severus at the to earlier
close of the second, century. In Nero, Commodus, revolutions:
Justinian II., we have the ignorant, highly-strung,

overwrought purple-born, whose promising career revived by

ends in horror and ruin. We have the ship of State, ™ns and
its born pilot proved incapable, rolling in the trough
of the seas; timid hands stretch out to the helm;
and one after another is discarded with more or less
violence and damage. Then the man of the hour
comes to the front and rights the vessel which is
nearly foundering. It took less than two years to
discover Vespasian, less than six months to bring in
Severus. But the long-drawn agony of the empire
stretched after the first dethronement of Justinian
into more than twenty years. Yet the result in all
three cases was the same ; a soldier of simple life,
austere and puritan tastes, and fixed purpose, comes
to reform a moribund and useless government.
Caesarism went back once more to the rudiments ;
tired of its caricature it sought a genuine repre-
sentative among the people. In a feudal country
the chief place would be a prize contended for by
patrician families ; in the more democratic atmos-
phere of the empire, noble birth was perpetually
on its trial, and when it ceased to play its part

108 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

This was ruthlessly ousted. The saviour of society was

analogous1 always an upstart and a parvenu, sought out in

to earlier the lowest ranks and trained in the school of want

rRo°man°nS: and adversity. The reign and policy of Leo the

tradition Armenian are familiar to many who know little of

revived by the obscurer parts of Byzantine history — a military.
plebeians and ,. . . ,. J ^. _

aliens. a religious, and a legal reorganisation. The Roman

memories and traditions were not yet extinct. It
was not too late to rekindle the sacred fires. It
was immaterial by whose hand the pious work was
done. Dacian peasants had finished their task from
Maximin and Decius to Diocletian and Justinian.
The pure Greek race had always been excluded
from the chief post ; admirable bureaucrats (as the
Moslem found) and theologians, they could ad-
minister and codify, but could not initiate or drive.
The " Roman " government, even under the most
religious and orthodox emperors, was never really
in sympathy with the great ecclesiastical system
which in turn supported, coerced, or cringed to it.
Something of the spirit of Diocletian is to be found
in Leo; an intense distrust of an imperium in imperio.
He had the simple faith of a mountaineer ; some-
what later he would have been an Albigensian or
a Huguenot : debarred from political action, he
might have been a Luther. Some see in him a
Jew, a Mahometan, or a Unitarian ; he clearly repre-
sents an afterwave of that great monotheistic revival
which spread east and west from Arabia in the
seventh century. Yet he is a convinced and believ-
ing Christian, and his legislation gives adequate
proof of his sincerity.

B. RELIGIOUS REFORM AND POLITICAL

REORGANISATION (717-775)

Obscurity and § 1. From a literary point of view the epoch of
^Isaurian' tne Iconoclasts is a wilderness ; our chief if not our
Annalists. sole authorities are Nicephorus the patriarch and

CH.V THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-775) 109

that confessor Theophanes who as a boy under Obscurity and
Constantine V. mounted those stupendous icebergs b™s °f . ,
which enabled men to compute time by the Great Annalists.
Frost. Their tale is told by enemies and perhaps
calumniators. It is hard to reconcile the annals of
two fierce yet incapable tyrants, persecuting their
own subjects and flying before the foe, with the
actual revival to be traced somewhat later in every
branch of the administration and national life. Can
such a recovery be traced to the initiative of cowardly
and cruel monsters, enemies of all religion, as re-
lentless as any pagan emperor before them in heaping
insult and torment on God's saints ? The legend
certainly acquires strength and circumstantial detail
as time goes on : Nicephorus and Theophanes say
nothing of the burning of the Octagon Library ;
Zonaras and Georgius repeat the story and add the
incredible fact that guards stationed at the doors
saw to it that the professors perished with their
parchments. Such a war against the literati re-
calls a similar crusade by Tsin-Hwang-Ti (c. 212
B.C.), first emperor of united and centralised China.
It may be best to neglect the personal history
of these two determined princes, to let events
and the later condition of the empire tell its
own tale. The scheme to keep the emperor a re-
spectable nonentity (like a Merovingian or Japanese
" Mikado " or Nepaulese prince) had broken down.
Bulgars on one side, Arabs on the other, re-
called to the affrighted Senate and bureaucrats dim
legends of the terrible days of Phocas and Heraclius,
when Avars and Persians had looked across the Pro-
pontis at each other's camp-fires. Anastasius II.
(a clear-sighted and industrious civilian) had already
begun to prepare for the coming attack from Islam, Popular
and no doubt Leo was indebted to his careful approval at
provision, for which, like Solomon, he obtained all personal
the credit. Personal monarchy was restored in obe- Rule-
dience to the popular will ; for democracy is a good

110

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Popular
approval at
revival oj
Personal
Rule.

monarchist. There are no ministers, no intrigues,
no side-influences to chronicle during these two
reigns. The methods of Iconoclasm were direct ;
and Leo and Constantine went straight to their aim.
So strong, indeed, were they that they could afford
to despise a rising of many nobles and officials ; and
so intrepid that they never hesitated to include them
in a religious persecution. The great Themes were
divided out among four or five trusty followers or
relatives, who remained long in office, — exerting the
full powers that a viceroy can only enjoy under a
centralised monarchy, feeling its way out of chaos
towards a uniform administration. We have almost
complete records (so ironical or tantalising is the
muse of history) of the gradual estrangement and
final rupture with the Papacy and the West ; ample
detail of the inconclusive attacks or forays of
Bulgarian and Caliph ; information far too full,
minute, yet unconvincing, of the war instituted
against superstition and monkish celibacy. But
the legal, military, financial reforms are obscure, —
and in these departments for our purpose lies the
interest of this strange supremacy of Armenia, now
become the heir of Roman tradition. It is very true
of the epoch of Iconoclasm that a special study
of its gross facts and events leaves one in utter
ignorance of its real tendency or achievement. As
with some faint star we must look away from the
object of vision to detect it at all. We can only
know it by examining the condition of the monarchy
(in which Rome to the end recapitulated her own
national story) before and after these important but
puzzling reigns. Contrast the reign of Irene with
those of the two usurpers who ruled a century
before. We can see now what forces must have
been at work to make this possible ; an Athenian
lady administered the empire by the help of a few
household eunuchs, without question at home and
not without credit abroad.

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-775) 111

§ 2. A rough summary of the events of these Some events
reigns may be of help. The immediate Saracen
peril was averted by the defeat of the assailants in
the great siege of Byzantium in 718 ; the 'Caliph
died of grief at the miscarriage of the Armada.
Seven years pass in comparative security for the
Asiatic provinces. In 726 Leo, who had already
begun to persecute Jews and Montanists, turns his
attention to the cult of images. In the next year
the Moslem invasions begin again and continue as
an annual border foray : Nice was attacked in vain.
The Octagon Library was burnt in 730, deliberately
or by accident, with or without its professors, ac-
cording as we prefer to accept legend or interpret
the character of Leo. For six years (733—739)
there is almost no foreign news, save the tidings of
discontent and alienation in Italy, — a part of the
Byzantine annals which is a special study of itself
and seems to have little or no connection with
political changes in the east. Still the Saracens
overran Asia Minor, and in 739 both emperors in
person led their troops to a successful engagement in
Phrygia. The next year Leo died, followed in 741
by Charles Martel and Gregory III. The interest
of the reign is curiously divided between the circum-
stances of the separatist movement in Italy and a
more or less avowed persecution of orthodoxy at
home. Once the predominant Armenian influence,
military and protestant, had been defied. Whether
a national rising or a religious protest, the revolt
of Cosmas with the Greek insurgents caused some
anxiety to the central government. When the fleet
of Agallianus (TovpiuLap^g rwv fE\\a&/c<w) was de-
feated and its leader drowned, Cosmas and Stephen
are taken to the capital and publicly beheaded ;
the reign of Byzantine leniency had not yet begun.
The elevation by Sergius of a phantom-emperor in
Sicily under the now canonised name of Tiberius
belongs to the western history of the empire, but may

112 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Some events be noted as a symptom of the dissolution which
threatened the whole. The first years of Leo III.
had been disquieted by suspicion of Anastasius II.,
still living in retirement ; his predecessor Philippicus
and his successor Theodosius being both alive. We
have another interesting proof of the demoralising
effect of civil strife. The last Heracliad had allied
with Bulgarians to regain his throne, and given
Terbelis the title of Caesar. Cherson and Bardanes
had invoked the aid of the Khazars ; and in a later
conflict between Leo's son and son-in-law we shall
see both parties soliciting reinforcements from the
infidels. Now Anastasius seeks help from Terbelis,
is discovered and beheaded : there is one less in
the number of surviving ex-emperors living in seclu-
sion. By his death ends the most disastrous period
for the Christian monarchy of Rome ; at no time
before or since was the imperial person so unsafe.
Maurice, it is true, had been murdered and Phocas
had suffered for the crime. The obscure conspiracy
of the soap-dish had ended the mysterious reign of
Constans III. But within the first twenty years
of the eighth century, five crowned and anointed
sovereigns had perished by violence. Justinian had
celebrated his return by the massacre of the " lion
and the adder," Leontius and " Aspimar " ; he himself
with his little son and colleague Tiberius V. had been
cut off in a righteous vengeance; and in 719 the
execution of Anastasius as a menace to the common-
wealth might plead a similar justification.

Rebellion of § 3. To what category are we to assign the notable

iwalctin^8' and serious sedition of Artavasdus the Armenian?

accounts of Was it the effect of mere personal ambition or did
if conceal a deeper motive ? Was it merely the
tentative of a sturdy general who felt that in the
new order of things the throne was open to com-
petition, and would be the prize not of the highest
bidder but of the stoutest combatant ? Was there
a relic of the old, primitive, and puzzling rule in

C. V. (750).

CH.V THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-775) 113

which folk-tales abound, which gives the royal sue- Rebellion of
cession to the penniless stranger-pilgrim married to
the king's daughter, rather than to the home-born
son ? or did the partisans of Artavasdus believe c- v- (750],
themselves to be fighting for some holy cause or
principle ? At any rate, the pretender holds the
capital city for perhaps two years (740-743) ; and
even while the pope's legate is bidden observe a
punctilious neutrality until the duel is decided, the
pope himself dates his letters by the Armenian name
that intervenes so strangely in the imperial list.
Husband of Anna, Leo's daughter, Curopalat (a dignity
throughout our period, 550-1081, at least nominally
next the throne), count of the turbulent Obsicians, —
he no doubt believed in the justice of his claim.
His prime-minister was the patrician Baktage, also
an Armenian ; and when the day was settled in
favour of Constantine V. and the direct succession,
Baktage was at once condemned to lose his head,
whereas Artavasdus and his sons did not lose their
eyes until they had essayed a fresh plot in vain.
Thus the reign of Leo's son formally began three
years after his father's death (743) and lasted on
thirty-two years. As in his father's reign, a barren
table of events can give a very poor clue to its
meaning or importance. It would be easy to in-
terpret it, by strictly recording facts, as the most
disastrous to the Roman world since the days of
Heraclius : he at least shed the lustre of brilliant
if futile heroism on his early days. Within, the
unpopular creed of Iconoclasm, forced against the
patient obstinacy of the people by every means of
ruthless violence and martial law ; governors, mere
partisans and mockers at order, justice, and piety ;
abroad, Italy lost, the Exarchate overthrown, Rome
and Catholicism irrevocably estranged, the Moslem
exulting unpunished in yearly depredations and
slave-raids ; Bulgarians insolent and aggressive ;
personally, a superstitious and cruel tyrant full of

VOL. II. H

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Rebellion of
Artavasdus :
conflicting
accounts of
C.- V. (750}.

Summary of
chief events
(740-775).

magic and lechery, scarcely human in his abomin-
able predilections for the odours and excrements
of the stable, certainly in no conceivable sense a
Christian ; his pastime to yoke holy men with aban-
doned women and make the procession slowly parade
the circus amidst the jeers of a time-serving mob.
Fitting, indeed, that nature should add her cata-
strophes to the hideous tale of horrors in this reign
of anti-Christ. The Great Frost (already spoken of)
seemed, as in Norse legend, to herald the end of the
world ; the Great Plague swept over the shrunken
confines of the empire, halved the population of
the capital and made the Peloponnese a desert. Yet
to us who can read Byzantine annals with a wide
survey of the whole span, it is not difficult to see
that the Iconoclastic era was one of undeniable
recovery ; and Finlay is perhaps not wholly wrong
in believing it to be the dawn of the modern age, and
incomparably the most important period in Rome's
history.

§ 4. On outward showing, indeed, the record is
sufficiently poor and inconclusive. Shortly after the
downfall of Artavasdus (744), Sisinnius, the emperor's
cousin, to whom he owed the throne, is disgraced
and blinded ; in 746, some slight success was gained
in distant Commagene ; in 747, the pestilence
ravaged the empire and brought back the pitiable
days of Justinian just 200 years before. In 750,
the victory of the Abbassides gave new life to the
Caliphate, and stirred up a powerful enemy of
Rome: in the following year the Frankish Mayor
displaced the Merovingian king, and Astolf put an
end to the Exarchate in the capture of Ravenna. In
759, the Caliph Almansor seizes Melitene, and next
year advances into Cilicia and Pamphylia and cuts to
pieces a Roman army. In 760, the emperor is
personally defeated by Slavs, and loses two great
officers in the battle, the Spojmov \oyo0crw and the
commander of the Thracesians. In 763, a welcome

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-775) 115

victory over the Bulgarians is tarnished by unusual Summary of
brutality in the treatment of captives ; they are
handed over to the factions of the circus to kill.
In 766, the Bulgarians retrieve their disgrace, and
Constantine vents his wrath on his own subjects,
persecuting and deriding the monks, while treating
the great officials with a capricious cruelty, which
might find a recent parallel in the madman
Justinian II., but at no other epoch in Byzantine
history. He had been thoroughly aroused by a
formidable plot the year previous, in which several
chief and responsible ministers were implicated.
The emperor in 767 demands Gisela, daughter of
Pepin, for his son Leo IV., with the old Exarchate for
her dowry ; the proposal is rejected. (Had Con-
stantine succeeded in his request the course of
history might have been altered by a single marriage ;
there would have been no Irene, no pretext for the
assumption by Charles of the imperial title, perhaps
instead a reconciliation of conflicting interest and
Church usage.) Asia Minor was divided between
three bluff and trusty henchmen of the emperor to
persecute the orthodox as they listed and to repulse
the Moslem ; chief among these was Lachanodracon.
After a lull of some years, tidings arrived (772)
of another great reverse ; the massed troops of
those Asiatic generals are shamefully defeated at
Syce, a maritime fortress in Pamphylia. In 774, the
Moslem again lead in a contemptuous foray for
kidnapping and plunder ; they seize 500 captives,
but at Mopsuestia are attacked in ambush and lose
double that number themselves. Constantine him-
self in the same year makes a great effort and puts
80,000 men into the field against the Bulgarians, a
last enterprise, as events proved. This was in a great
degree successful, and atoned in a measure for the
northern humiliations and anxieties of his reign
He was overtaken by death in 775 while preparing
a second expedition.

116 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Indirect evi- § 5. It is impossible to find here the record of a
dwa^?thisly successful reign- Schlosser, Finlay, and to a certain
disappointing extent the prudent Bury, have appeared as apologists
result. for the character and policy of the Iconoclasts. The

rancour of the two Church historians, both born in
this reign (758), is quite apparent ; but we do not
judge by their wealth of epithets, but by facts which
cannot be gainsaid. Discord within, loss or disgrace
without, one half of the empire abroad, one half of
the home population estranged ; provinces given
over to a brutal and violent soldiery, the factions of
the capital encouraged to look on the massacre of
captives of war as an afternoon's pastime, insults to
religious orders and emblems as the chief duty of
anti-clerical officials : the negative side of a secular
(not an austere) protestantism could go no further.
A historian may ignore the foolish gossip of the
palace, which finds poison in every natural death
and moral depravity in every innocent relation. But
if we are rather to judge by the straightforward
chronicle, the estimate can hardly be called satis-
factory : the reign of Constantine V. must appear
the very nadir of this period, grossly barbarous
and violent, yet ineffective, the least Roman of all
reigns. Indirect evidence, as we have stated, points
to a very different conclusion. A society on the
very point of dissolution received new life in every
department. Law, commerce, agriculture, finance,
military organisation, religious practice, — all are care-
fully revised and adapted to the new circumstances
and the new inmates of the realm. The work of
Heraclius, suspended during the thirty years of the
madness of Justinian and its consequences, was re-
sumed and completed. The loss of northern Italy
was a gain ; the attack on idol- worship and celibacy
the obvious duty of a spirited and patriotic monarch ;
the frontier-defence against overwhelming odds a
work nobly performed. It is impossible to do other-
wise than to suspend, in this most puzzling reign

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-775) 117

and character, the historical judgment. Against the Indirect evi-

barbarity of Constantine's punishments to Scamars, f

J ' against this

to monks, to prisoners of war, must be set the disappointing

tenderness with which, abating his imperial dignity, result.

he treated with pirates and preferred to ransom

2500 Roman subjects rather than imperil their lives;

against the stories of his irreligion and dissolute

Court we can adduce the piety of his daughter

Anthemisia, who, nun though she was, lived on the

most affectionate terms with this blasphemous

"mangeur des moines." Against the callous brutality of

an age (searching fate, for instance, in the entrails of

a new-born infant) can be alleged the deep interest

of the imperial family, and doubtless of a wider

society, in the novel foundling-hospitals which be-

came later a marked feature in this civilised and

compassionate world. The plain fact remains that

we cannot reconcile the two series of facts. Some-

where, historical evidence is wilfully distorted or

entirely at fault. We have to deal with two groups

separately, which cannot be brought into harmony.

And the most equitable method is this (indeed the

sole guide for the ofttimes impertinent criticism

of the student) — to give preference to the judgment

which comes from indirect proof.

§ 6. In this field we forget personalities and deal Recovery due
only with broad, social, or political tendencies. A ^^7^
survey of a great epoch and its unmistakable features monarchic
makes us forget the petty trivialities and bitterness contr°l-
of individual human life. We have asserted, and
shall find occasion to repeat, that the empire was
rapidly changing in this age ; it may claim the
gentler verdict usually passed on a period of tran-
sition. The population shifted ; the lower classes
became more and more Slavonic; the upper,
increasingly Armenian. Whatever the apparent in-
security of these two reigns, confidence was reviv-
ing ; stability in trade, tillage, and commerce
reappeared. Property was more safe ; estates and

118 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A
Recovery due titles were transmitted without anxiety to de-

SXSfwT*** scendants< We beSin to see notable feudal families
monarchic of warriors born and bred. The military and official
control, classes show no brilliant meteors out of the void,
coming, none know from whence, and while a spec-
tator looks, vanishing to leave no trace ; but steady
transmission by a fixed routine of training and
discipline, such as had in earlier times brought to
unparalleled efficiency the twin services of Rome.
Once more in the stress of the infidel siege and
other perils, the monarchy resumes its direct and
especially in emphatic control. Perhaps (as modern historians
suggest) the chief domain of " Isaurian " success was
neither religion and military reform or frontier de-
fence, but finance; the internal economy centralised
and careful, without which a Socialistic common-
wealth, like the empire its prototype, could not for
a moment endure. I gladly accept Bury's suggestion,
or rather inspiration, that Constaris III. (after his
senatorial tutelage) drew to himself the management
of the budget and revenue, and that henceforward
a Byzantine sovereign was largely a glorified
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Army, Civil Service,
ordinary administration — these could go on smoothly
on the well-worn grooves of tradition ; but financial
methods and sources of income require (as we know
too well to-day) constant readjustment. The in-
dependence of the minister is a thing of the past ;
the very title disappears ; we meet with no more
counts of the sacred largesses; before 700 the term
is obsolete. A logothete is not a minister, but a
secretary, a clerk, like a trusted freedman in those
great households of the later republic on which the
imperial rule was modelled. Leo III. is said to
have suddenly increased the taxes (727); it is certain
that, like Charles Martel, he resumed some of the
superfluous wealth of the Church, besides seizing
the Petrine patrimonies in the East. I believe that
as Tiberius III. began with the help of his brother

CH.V THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-802) 119

Heraclius to reorganise the army, so Anastasius II. Recovery due
in civil matters attempted to repair, to provide, and to re^sumPtion
to retrench. The election of Theodosius III. the monarchic
revenue-officer was a caricature of a real change control,
in the attitude and functions of monarchy. The
emperor until the days of spendthrift Michael III.
will be once again the business-like head of a house-
hold ; keeping careful accounts of profit and loss, of
income, expenditure, and waste, and not delegating
the resources of the empire like an idle landlord to
unscrupulous bailiffs.

C. THE EMPEROR, THE CHURCH, AND THE AIM OF
GOVERNMENT IN THE PERIOD OF ICONOCLASM
(717-802)

§ 1. Slight but certain indications point to the Barbarism of

increasing influence of the clergy in the State during *£ ^^55™
the Heraclian period. If we are venturesome, we influence of
may boldly hazard the conjecture that while the priests.
civil administration was almost extinguished, and in
the end supplanted by military dictators and major-
generals, the clergy and bishops found themselves
everywhere charged with such duties as the soldier
cannot perform. The infallible token of li mediae-
valism " is the predominance of the priest and the
warrior, the rough division of society between those
who pray and those who fight. Here we have the
two natural extremes of a primitive society. The
epicene civilian, neither brave nor devout, but only
orderly and methodical, is a late, and perhaps a de-
generate product, like the bank-clerk. The Byzantine
world, after the Great Plague of Justinian's reign,
was fast slipping back into barbarism ; and by this
I would imply a return to the rudiments, a reaction
against an artificial culture, uniform and pacific, and
against alien methods of government. Respect for
the State and deference to law give place to a dread
of the unseen powers and their hierophants, to

120 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Barbarism of admiration for the strong and relentless hand.
ffte™/5oe- History is forced once more to become mere
influence of biography. What are the annals of the sixth
priests. century but the personal records of Theodoric

and Theodora, Justinian and Belisarius, Maurice
and Phocas ? It is still more true of the seventh
century ; the emperor, an isolated figure, occupies
the whole stage. It is a time, too, of barbarous
punishments. The unfortunate slave-girl who
without intention dishonours the passing bier of
Heraclius' first wife is burnt alive ; and we have
noticed that this same emperor strives in vain to
save a supposed Marcionite from the flames. While
the Shah skins his unsuccessful general, Phocas
kindles the faggots for his victims ; and we have
to go back to the reign of Valentinian I. (364-375)
for such Draconian severity. However " Roman "
in theory the pretensions or ideals of Heraclius,
it cannot be doubted that in his reign new or
primitive customs and institutions blotted out in
large tracts of the empire all memories of a strictly
" Roman " tradition. The priests had not merely
(as they hoped) an exact and infallible chart of the
next world, but a scheme of conduct and a " map of
life" for this. Their attitude was not that of the
Justinianean Code ; Leo's legislation acknowledges
and ratifies the subtle change that had taken place
in the century preceding his collection. The
orthodox clergy in the East were never so patient
with ordinary life as their brethren in the West;
they were not the exclusive repositories of learning.
The monasteries they founded in such reckless
abundance (as the certain remedies for the universal
decay) were not centres of active life, but in the
main homes for contemplation and the practice of
the most private and intangible virtues. Yet we
cannot close our eyes to the wide increase in
sacerdotal and patriarchal influence. The new
titles of office are borrowed from the Church ; and

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-802)

so are the men who wear them. We saw the use Barbarism of
of "Sacellarius" extended from the cathedral to the ^^.
palace ; and we acknowledge with a sigh that it is influence of
derived from " saccus," not " sacellum," and implies priests.
rather a Bursar than a Sacristan. We find monks
summoned from a cloistered retreat to the manage-
ment of finance and budget ; and, thus gradually pre-
pared for this curious intermingling or exchange of
function, we can read without surprise that John the
Deacon is first Chancellor of the Exchequer and
then Generalissimo against the Arabs. The priest
was plainly ousting the civilian, and even daring to
compete with the soldier.

§ 2. Every established order, however honourable Orthodox
in age or fortune, must find an opposition. The
Senate may have curtailed of set purpose the exercise
of -imperial prerogative ; and, as M. Pobyedonest-
cheff confesses, reduced to an almost irreducible
minimum the possible moments of its effective
intervention. The imperial line, from the Adoptive
or Balkan emperors of the fifth century, struggled
against abuse and corruption in their own agents.
The servants of despotism regarded with covert
jealousy or scorn the supreme authority which
had made them what they were. The orthodox
churchmen looked with suspicion on the religious
tolerance or suspected heresy of the sovereign ; the
patriarch attempted to make a compact before be-
stowing the crown. And the armies which even
in the earliest days of discipline had excited now and
again the apprehension of the central power, might
once more create disturbance when restored to order
and efficiency. The character of the opposition
under the Isaurians, though we may detect traces
of all these secret foes, is mainly ecclesiastical. But
the wide influence of this class, as it penetrated deep
into ordinary life, made the Iconoclastic duel no
mere crusade against an unreformed establish-
ment, but a general contest, in which on one side

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Leo seeks to or the other every class in the State was enrolled
™hufctts anc* marshalled as an eager partisan. While the
influence. patriarch becomes the recognised critic, in some
part the creator, on occasion the dangerous rival, of
the monarch, it is probable that could we penetrate
the provincial gloom we should find the bishop
occupying a pre-eminent position in the lesser towns.
Had not the Alexandrine pontiff under Heraclius
been also charged with a prefect's function and
empowered to negotiate a delicate question of
diplomacy ? They would act, as in the West, in
default of regular civilian appointments, as adminis-
trative officials. The bishop had become, without
effort or ambition, the head of the municipality, the
" Patron of the Borough." Whether he intervened
seldom or often, he was in any case the ultimate
arbiter and referee, judge and civil governor in one.
In many places regular intercourse with the capital
had completely broken down during the strange and
obscure movements of the seventh century. The
Isaurian enactments show plainly that the once
vaunted uniformity of Roman law had disappeared,
giving way to the local usage, which sprang up
naturally like the " custom " of the Western manor,
or was introduced by the countless settlers of alien
race, — Slavs, Gotho-Greeks, Mardaites, welcomed or
tolerated by the infinite patience or extreme need
of Rome. Monks are to the fore in revolutions, and
the whole clerical society was in closer sympathy
with the people than with the governing class.
Finlay remarks, with his usually correct insight, that
the clergy took " more trouble to conciliate public
opinion than official favour " ; " abbots were often
men of wealth and family " ; and he warns us
not to be surprised to see monks " acting the
part of the demagogue." Leo III., convinced
Puritan as he is, does not seek merely to purify
the Church from superstition ; he is concerned to
maintain, like every Roman emperor, the supremacy

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-802) 123

of the State over a rival, to rescue the imperial power Leo seeks to
from becoming the tool of a faction. He is under- u^kenh>
taking the same task and courting the same disasters influence.
as his brothers of the Western line in later days.
There is indeed not a little of the furor Teutonicus
in the severe Ironside soldier and his Anatolics and
Armeniacs, as they descend to rescue New Rome
from an incapable government and the debased
religion which had corrupted it.

§ 3. We have no intention of following closely the Anti-Cleri-
phases of the Iconoclastic controversy. We are c^hsm and
contented with the true statement that its motive supremacy.
was as much political as religious. In the involution
or confusion of the secular and sacred spheres, it is
often difficult to find the real spring of action. In
the Reformation, in the Great Rebellion in England,
in the French Revolution, we may seek to discriminate
the exact proportion of the two. We shall no doubt
discover in the first a large predominance of the
political ; in the second, of the religious ; in the last,
a puzzling confusion of ingredients, a godless but
still idealistic religionism upholding political or rather
social and humanitarian claims ; — claims which, as
we recognise to-day, can never again be fired with a
similar zeal. Interwoven intricately were the threads
of the two under the Isaurians. For good or ill, the
empire had taken a side and become a partisan with
Constantine. Never more could it regain the in-
different and unruffled composure of a Gallic, — the
attitude of impartial arbiter among all warring creeds
and principles, because it lacked any of its own.
The Saracen success was largely due to the misguided
attempts to impose religious uniformity. The motive
was political, and the dissentients were justly sus-
pected of disloyalty. But it was none the less to be
regretted that the archaic and impartial sovereignty,
or rather suzerainty, had passed away. Either the
State would be distracted by religious feud and the
emperor pulled about between various factions, or

124 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Anti-Cleri-
calism and
State-
supremacy.

Value of
counterpoise
to State-
absolutism.

The Pro-
testants of
Armenia
against
Hellenism :
success and
reaction
under C. VI.
(c. 800).

he would become a humble if majestic puppet secretly
controlled by the dominant and tyrannical Ortho-
doxy. As with the modern Reformers, Leo's pro-
testantism only substituted one form of intolerance
for another ; and the commonwealth was no nearer
unity than before, — or to that good-natured yet not
careless " agreement to differ " about those serious
and personal matters which can never safely become
the concern of the State. — Yet it would be unfair
indeed to overlook the merits of free-speech, and the
bold tenacity of purpose in the Eastern Church. It
is true that, in the annals of mankind, in the develop-
ment and advance of the free spirit, it can never claim
the same gratitude that we give without grudging to
the Church of Rome. But in this age, while we
sometimes appear to regret its influence and to en-
courage this typical Henry VIII. in his Erastian work
of humbling its pride, — we cannot forget its services
to subject and rulers alike, in providing an organ for
constitutional criticism and opposition. We refer
frequently to the dangers of State-monopoly and
State-absolutism, — dangers to which the modern mind
seems oddly insensible. Let us not then forget the
part played by the outspokenness of a patriarch, the
calm debate of a General Council, the " framework
of customs, opinions, and convictions" which (as
Finlay so well says) " could be with difficulty altered
and rarely opposed without danger." Indeed,Constan-
tinople has always seen a religious law or hierarchy,
a theocracy, enthroned above an autocratic sovereign.
Both basileus and " padishah " have to recognise this
restriction on a power otherwise irresponsible.

§ 4. Just as religion and political motive are inex-
tricably tangled, so even under political reasons we
can detect the presence of a still simpler cause of
conflict. The religious wars of Europe depend
largely on race and nationality ; and we see clear
trace in our Byzantine monarchy of a cleavage of
society depending on this difference of stock. The

CH. v THE ROMAN EMPIRE (717-802) 125

eighth century marks the insurgence of Armenia The Pro-

against Hellenism and Orthodoxy. And when the testants °f

Armenia
victory is assured, there appears also a severance against

in the dominant faction. The revolutions in the Hellenism:

« Twenty Years of Anarchy " were the work of the

Asiatic soldier ; now sullen, recalcitrant, and un- under C. VI.

patriotic, now stern and determined to undertake the

task of reorganising the collapsed fragments of a

great tradition. The significance of the two years'

contest for the throne after Leo's death (740-743)

may be exaggerated by the pragmatic historian ; but

it is impossible not to read in the rebellion of Arta-

vasdus (or rather in the support it enlisted) something

more than a mere sally of disappointed ambition.

The provincial regiments, now as formerly the um-

pires of the monarchy, take different sides in the

contest of son and son-in-law ; Armeniacs and Ob-

sicians stand for Artavasdus, Thracensians and the

ever-faithful Anatolics, for the direct heir Constantine

V. It cannot be doubted that the effect of the new

and permanent provincial armies was to divide Lesser

Asia into as many divisions as mediaeval Germany ;

for " duchies " read " themes" Under Constantine VI.

there is the same conflict: the Armeniacs maintain

throughout their irreconcilable enmity to Irene, Hel-

lene, orthodox, and iconodule. In 790, the Asiatic

themes (except this regiment) swear reluctant allegiance

to the successful restorer of images, and then proclaim

her son sole emperor. When in misguided devotion

to his mother the young prince insists on her

recognition by the Asiatic troops, the Armeniacs

again hold out ; they burst into open mutiny and

blind the generals he sends. In 797, he endeavours

to escape to the Anatolics, who are conspicuous for

their loyalty to the direct line of succession. It is

difficult to attach any certain political importance

to the persistent attempts to raise the uncles of

Constantine VI. to the throne. It may be easily

believed that they were the figure-heads of the

126 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. A

The Pro- Iconoclastic party, and were constantly employed by
^rmenicf tneu* mischievous friends as a pretext for rebellion
against throughout the reign of Leo IV., of Constantine VI.,

Hellenism: and Qf jrene /77-_8o2\ go late as 7Q9 the Helladic
success and \s t •) * i / / *

reaction theme enters the list of conspirators, and proposes to
under C. VI. raise one of these unfortunate princes to a position
for which he had neither aptitude nor desire. Even
in the reign of Michael I. (811—813) the names of
these luckless Caesars are whispered in the discon-
tented circles of the capital ; perhaps for the fifth
time these innocent victims of others' treason are
discovered, pardoned, and removed to a securer
exile. I do not profess to understand the sudden
subsidence of this once redoubtable military influence.
But it is possible — nay, probable — that the eunuch-
regime of Irene deliberately starved the army ; and
was not content with merely ordering that "no
military leaders should converse with Stauracius."
It must be remembered that the Armeniacs had been
humbled, decimated, and perhaps disbanded for their
sedition ; one thousand were sent into exile bearing
the convict brand, " This is an Armenian conspirator."
Certain it is that after the comparative peace of
Irene's sole reign, Nicephorus I. (like most By-
zantine sovereigns at the opening of a new century)
is confronted by the imperative need of national
defence ; and earned an undesirable renown by the
firmness with which he pressed its claims and the
failure which awaited his efforts.

CHAPTER VI

CHARACTER AND AIMS OF THE PRETENDERS AND
MILITARY REVOLTS IN THE NINTH CENTURY:
GRADUAL ACCEPTANCE OF LEGITIMACY (802-867)

§ 1. FROM the accession of Leo VI. of ambiguous Suspension of
parentage, or from the universal acknowledgment of dynas?ic
his strictly illegitimate son, termed half in irony the ^^oneopen
" purple-born/' — public opinion or its Byzantine to Armenian
substitute veers round to legitimacy. We have a
shown how, in the coming age, the pretender and
supplanter of a feeble or pacific sovereign gives
place to the " Shogun," a vigorous and responsible
colleague ; who may sometimes forget his respect for
the dynasty, but will never attempt to overthrow it.
I purpose, in order to explain this seeming paradox,
to examine the significant features of the reigns and
the mutinies immediately following the usurpation
of Irene, and the failure of the Hellenic attempt
to seize the helm of State. The success of an Ara-
bian (?) of royal descent again reminded pretenders
that the chief post was open to the adventurer.
Nicephorus I. has the proud distinction of setting
an example of humanitarian leniency, which he
had not inherited from his predecessor, which his
followers did not always imitate. He had to face in
the revolt of Bardanes a formidable Armenian cabal.
The pretender leant on the support of two future
emperors, Leo and Michael, and of Thomas the Slav
(who will soon claim our notice); two Armenians, a
Phrygian, and a Slavonic settler; but this last is
said to have had one Armenian parent. When his
friends desert him and make terms with the gloomy

but determined Arabian, Bardanes is allowed to

127

128

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Suspension of
dynastic
principle :
throne open
to Armenian
adventurer.

Socialist
'Jacquerie' in
Asia Minor
(c.

become a monk : and we must dissociate Nicephorus
from any complicity with the ruffians who burst into
his monastic retreat and deprived him of sight.
Arshavir, also Armenian, in his rebellion of 808
depends on active and aristocratic support in the
capital itself ; on the failure of the plot, Nicephorus
obliges him to don the monastic habit, with the
same indulgence that afterwards prompts him to
confine a dangerous monk and assassin as a lunatic.
The reigns of Michael I. and of Leo V. belong to
the annals of successful conspiracies, and the latter
Armenian takes his place with legitimate sovereigns.
It is on his death that the Armenian faction once
more bursts out and causes not merely a serious
disturbance, but a permanent damage to the con-
tinent of Asia Minor, now the chief home of
" Roman " wealth and stability. Thomas, the son
of a Slavonian and an Armenian, was in Armenia
itself on the news of the sudden and violent death of
Leo V. (820). He resents the success of his brother-
in-arms, the low-born Phrygian Michael of Amorium,
whom some suspected of gipsy blood, all of hetero-
doxy or religious indifference. During the years
820 and 821 he overran all Asia Minor, and actually
controlled the administration and appointed officials
in the themes, with the exception of the Armeniac
and Obstcian (and we have no occasion to wonder at
the unsympathetic attitude of the former regiment,
for we may suppose that, after Constantine's severe
treatment in 790, and the drafting of the mutineers
into other detachments, or even actual exile, the new
legions were reconstituted without native support ;
thus Armeniacs ceased at that moment to represent
an Armenian nation).

§ 2. This serious sedition had a singular character
and interest. It presents features elsewhere associated
with the rising of a later Jacquerie or the "Bagaudage"
of third-century Gaul. It might be called a social re-
volution, a definite protest against the whole system of

CH. vi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (802-867) 129

imperial government and class-privilege, against the Socialist

fiscal exactions which the needs of the empire had 'J^vy**'

Asia Minor
suggested to Nicephorus I. But we must not hastily (c.

attribute modern motives to ancient insurrections ;
we shall content ourselves with the actual words of
the Greek historians. Theophanes is no longer our
trusty guide ; and we are dependent on the Con-
tinuators, who completed his work under the
direction and encouragement of Constantine VII.
K. SovXoi Kara SCOTTTOTMV AC. (TTpaTiwTri<s KCITO.
K. Xo^ayo? Kara crTparriyeTOV TY\V Xe*Pa
OwTrXtQ.1 It is tempting to recognise here
the familiar career of a social reformer, of a " friend
of the people." The birth of Thomas was exceed-
ingly obscure, and he was in every way a fitting
rival to the ignorant Phrygian, whom accident and .
audacity had fixed on the throne of the Caesars and
made the founder of the longest and most illustrious
dynasty and period in our later annals. He had
lived among the Saracens, and perhaps imbibed
some of that democratic idealism found behind
most movements of fanatical religion. He was
currently supposed to be the long-deposed Con-
stantine VI., and is reported to have negotiated for
an imperial coronation in Syrian Antioch. Since
the accession of the " Isaurians " the capital had not
been exposed to civil war, and the Arabian peril had
united its inhabitants in a common duty and a
religious service. But the old Roman tradition and
precedent demanded that a pretender should march,
like Vespasian or Heraclius, like Tiberius Apsimar or
Theodosius III., upon the metropolis ; and perhaps
that city has to thank the unwitting Bulgarians
for their escape from Thomas' undisciplined and
plundering levies. Reduced by their sudden attack
and taking refuge in Adrinople or Arcadiopolis, he is
surrendered to the Imperialists, and with his son
subjected to the most cruel punishment that stains

1 Genesius.
VOL. II. I

130 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Socialist the record of Byzantine justice. Yet his death

f^TMinorn does not extinguish the rising ; like the Isaurian

(c. 820], revolt under Anastasius, the mutiny; whether social or

military or personal, still smouldered in Cabala and

Samaria ; and we may note with amusement or

dismay that the capitulation of this last stronghold

was due to the treachery of a churchman, who

demanded and obtained an archbishopric as the price

of his secret aid.

without § 3. I am not able to follow Fin lay's suggestive

political aim musmgs on the intrinsic character or political lesson
of this revolt ; his theory of a large Asiatic population
excluded (for social and religious reasons) from all
public and local affairs and smarting with this
indignity, is ingenious but not wholly convincing.
Nor can I entirely endorse the following criticism
or prediction : " Had Thomas been a man of power-
ful mind, he might have laid the foundation of a new
State of society in the Eastern empire by lightening
the burden of taxation, carrying out toleration
for religious opinions, securing an impartial ad-
ministration of justice even to heretics, and giving
every class of subjects, without distinction of
nationality or race, equal security for their lives
and property."

I do not see traces in the Asiatic revolution
of anything more serious than a nationalist rising
against an insecure throne usurped from a com-
patriot, headed by a man of energy but without
political principle and constructive power, calling to
itself all the obscure forces of discontent and dis-
order, which are borne to the surface in periods of
transition and religious crisis. Nothing so definite
was in their minds as a conscious protest against the
forms and methods of the imperial system : they
demanded only (as the Teutons of old) to have their
share and to enjoy, not to overthrow. It may be
questioned whether the Asiatic had " taken up arms
against religious intolerance." There appear few

CH. VT THE ROMAN EMPIRE (802-867) 131

signs of a religious character ; and I am inclined to Intolerant
set down this so-called « Socialist " revolt to much SP^U °J the
the same causes as divided the continent between °^e'
Artavasdus and Constantine V. eighty years earlier.
It is idle even to suggest to the actors in the drama
of antique history that they shall be animated by
the same motives that appeal to us in our latter-day
indifference or " enlightenment." Only the worst
and feeblest of the Roman princes accepted the
principle of religious tolerance ; and a " new State
of society " on the lines of modern and modest
Liberalism (such as Finlay sketches) would have
shortly collapsed in bankruptcy and disorder before
domestic and foreign foes. But I can heartily
applaud the concluding remark, which deserves all
praise for its candour and political sagacity; it is no
small concession to truth to abandon the principles
and hopes which elsewhere he upholds, as a
tl popular " historian. tf The spirit of the age," he
allows with regret, " was averse to toleration, and
the sense of justice was so defective that these equit-
able principles could only have been upheld by the
power of a well-disciplined and mercenary army."
Indeed, it is impossible not to see that the faults
and abuses of the system lay rather with the people
than with the government. The emperor himself
seems always in the van of progress, and attempts in
vain to allay the fierce feuds of the religious spirit.
Neither justice nor worship nor finance could have
been safely left to the discretion of these rancorous
and vaguely separatist factions or races, which only
the imperial system held together in a semblance
of amity. And in the suggestion of an alien and
indifferent army of mercenaries (such as was just
about to bear heavily on the Caliphate) we have an
omen of the coming time, — when the national or
provincial legions of the earlier " Thematic" system
are to be displaced by the professional militia and
the Norman soldier of fortune.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Feuds of
monk and
soldier.

Emperors
ignorant or
heterodox.

Weakening
of regimental
spirit.

§ 4. In this age there are signs of such undying
feud and bitterness between monks and soldiers as
leave little justification for hopes of amicable settle-
ment, without a central power somewhat indifferent
to the whole disturbance. Leo V. (it has been well
said) holds the balance between " monks who de-
manded the persecution of Iconoclasts, and the
army who wanted the abolition of images." The
soldiers were largely rough puritan zealots, like
Scotsmen among the superstitions of Spain. The
persecution of Nicephorus might seem to reflect
discredit on Leo ; but the emperor was satisfied with
deposing an impossible colleague, and the kind
treatment of the patriarch is only an instance of
the mildness of this second Iconoclast victory.
Although his successor was an alien heretic, and
cared nothing for orthodoxy, law, or learning, there
came over him the wonderful change we mark in
so many selfish pretenders to the purple when they
have attained their wish. He becomes firm and
far-sighted, sincere and equitable ; and we cannot
regret that the lowly dynasty, destined for so great a
renown, was not interrupted in the earliest moment
of its life by a " social revolution." Michael II. allies
himself with the " Isaurian " house ; and prevails on
the Senate and Patriarch to request formally his
union with Euphrosyne, daughter of Constantine VI.
Meantime, the provincial regiments were weakened
by the operation of physical laws and deliberate
imperial plans. Since the middle of the seventh
century, they had been the nurseries of a vague
revival in religious and patriotic feeling ; they had
taken a serious and active part in the elevation of
sovereigns and the purging of ecclesiastical abuse.
But if they were a safeguard, they were also a
menace ; and the turbulence of the Armeniacs in
790 led, as we have seen, to the disbanding of the
homogeneous battalions, — recruited, we cannot doubt,
like an earlier Roman legion, in the very district

CH. vi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (802-867) 133

where they were quartered. Whether distrusted by Weakening
the sovereign, divided, weakened, or diversified by of regimental
introduction of new elements, the thematic armies
lose that distinctive character which marked them
during the Heraclian and Isaurian reigns. We have
hesitated, when dealing with the unwarlike supine-
ness of the older citizen of Rome, whether to blame
the contented sloth of the subject or the jealous
suspicions of their ruler ; and we may perhaps
decide to divide the blame or the responsibility
between the two. Once more, a strong local militia
became a source of danger; and once more, recourse
was had to that last expedient of a wealthy and
enervated civilisation, — foreign and mercenary troops.
Native recruits may have failed ; vast tracts of
country during the " Social War " of Thomas must
have passed into desert and let in the jungle ; and
we can see preparing the later accumulation of land
in a few hands, which is the most characteristic
feature of the age of the " Shoguns " (920—1025).

§ 5. We have to look in an unexpected quarter Revolt of
for the next mutiny. The motive is neither religious ^s
nor political, nor yet again social. It is purely sinope.
mediaeval, and must remind one rather of the
temptations of Sir John Hawkwood and of the
"Age of the Condottieri." We find under the
valiant and unfortunate Theophilus (829-842) (a
match in the imperial series to Caliph Haroun, as
a hero of romance and chivalry) — a force of 30,000
Persians stationed at Sinope, under the command
of Theophobus. At one time we hear of their valour
and good faith, at another of their dangerous sedi-
tion : now at the battle of Dasymon they alone
support the emperor when the native troops desert ;
now they proclaim their general, and though once
coerced and disbanded, again torment Theophilus
in his last days with the fears of an independent
principality, such as many soldiers of fortune carved
out in the West. Once again, the Armeniac theme

134 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Revolt of
Persian con-
tingent at
Sinope.

Close of the
Era of
* Pronuncia-
mentos.'

Restoration
of Image-
worship.

became a centre of disaffection : and the dying
commands of the emperor ensured the succession
of his son at the cost of a faithful life.

Whatever the shortcomings of Michael II. in birth,
education, or character ; whatever the extravagance
or the crimes of Theophilus, there can be no doubt
that under their strong personal government the
State recovered its strength and stability. And this
recuperation is specially to be noticed in domestic
matters. The age of " Pronunciamentos," of rough
military insurrections, is past and over ; the theory
and principles of legitimacy enter deeply into the
national sentiment; and the sanguinary change of
dynasty in 867 must have taken the appearance,
except to a few accomplices, of a peaceful succes-
sion of a legally adopted Caesar. The reign of
Michael III. (842-867), his long minority and un-
happy reign, was a period of a sudden and general
relaxation of restraint. Within a month of the death
of Theophilus, his widow had made her peace with
the Church (Feb. 19, 842), and the second epoch of
Iconoclastic supremacy came to an end. Orthodoxy
and luxury joined hand in hand to celebrate the
new pact between the Church and the Government.
Though the image-breakers had never sanctioned
ascetic rigour, yet they were somehow connected in
the popular mind with sternness, precision of con-
duct, and a simple and puritan worship. A sublime
and dramatic pageant, aided and enhanced by music,
colour, and odours, was once more in fashion ; and
as in the very similar period of the English Restora-
tion, manners seem to throw off control with the
revival of the Orthodox creed and practice.

§ 6. Once more reappears, with dignity and cere-
monious prestige unimpaired, the long unfamiliar
name of the Senate. This ancient assembly of
officials, retiring into discreet obscurity during the
personal government of Isaurians and the disorders
of military revolutions, resumes its forgotten rights.

CH. vi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (802-867) 135

The Council of State ratifies the will of Theophilus, Restoration
and may be expected to support the pious desire of of Image-
Theodora to restore honour to images. It solemnly u
receives and audits the accounts which the empress
makes up towards the close of her regency, with a
laudable sense of responsibility and that conception
of office as a public trust and not a private patri-
mony, to which in that age every other nation or
government was an utter stranger. — The revival of
Orthodox practice and belief is attended by a re-
course to violence in matters spiritual. Yet we must
not judge too harshly of the persecutors of the
Paulicians ; though we cannot fail to regret that
after the lenient example of the later Iconoclasts, the
Church could make no better use of her recovered
pre-eminence than to institute civil war. But when
we have once allowed the fact and principle then
prevailing everywhere, of the identity or closest
implication of Church and State, we have gone far
to provide an apology for the saddest feature in
Christian annals, — persecution for difference of creed.
We may indeed distrust the virulence and bias of
those partisans who tell us of the Antinomian
doctrine and anti- social acts of the Cathari in Intolerant
Western Europe. We may class them with the

ancient slander of the blameless Manichaean, with
the pagan calumny of Thyestean banquets and
nocturnal orgies among early Christians, with the
undying legend of the Christian boy, enticed and
crucified in some mediaeval ghetto. But, granting
the peculiar view then prevalent alike with reaction-
ary and reformer, the interdependence of State and
Church, and giving ever so slight a foundation for
these vague and dreadful rumours, — we arrive at the
conclusion that the mediaeval heretic could not fail
to be considered an enemy of the State, — like
Vitalian, whom the Senate pronounces aXXorpios r5?
TroXtre/a?, a stranger to the commonwealth, to the
social order. It must be noted that it is the populace

136 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Intolerant
dread of
heretics.

Paulician
persecution

political

who display the greatest rancour and intolerance.
The early Christians fell victims not to the tyranny
of provincial governors, but to the spasmodic out-
bursts of democratic resentment. We have seen
Heraclius pleading with the mob for the life of a
tf Marcionite " : and we read without surprise the
mediaeval chronicler, who tells us that the people
" dreaded the weak indulgence of the clergy " in
regard to some Albigensian suspect. I need not
appeal to the strange and horrible torments which
are reserved to-day for certain criminals in America,
whom public opinion places beyond the pale of law
and rescues from the official gaoler to inflict a more
cruel and lingering death. Of recent days, the
vindictive displeasure of the mob has demanded in
Monaco, in France, in Switzerland, a more instant
and serious penalty than the State had either power
or desire to inflict ; and the rough but summary
justice which the people claim to exert must indeed
surprise those humanitarians who would rebuild the
body politic on a fanciful idealisation of average
human nature.

§ 7. The Paulicians were traitors to the common-
wealth ; Carbeas their leader has no scruple in joining
the Emir of Melitene, in ravaging " Roman " terri-
tory, in establishing a republican stronghold at
Tephrice somewhat later, bearing a certain resem-
blance to the Assassin's fortress at Alamut. What-
ever the exasperation which drove them to these
extreme measures, the duty of the central govern-
ment could contemplate no concession to this faction
of disloyal renegades. Under the Isaurians, the
monks of Athos had assumed that curious autonomy,
which still survives to-day, beneath the looser and
less exacting government of the Turks. The restora-
tion of orthodoxy placed these political dissenters
once more among faithful subjects ; but a similar
licence could not be extended to the half-Jewish
Socialists, who were far nearer Islam than any current

CH. vi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (802-867) 137

form of Gospel-teaching. In the recent conflict of Paulician
England with the Boers, we have listened to severe ^8^utio
attacks on the plain duty of Imperialism; and the political.
thinking world will always be divided between the
champions of centralism and the apostles of nation-
ality, local franchise, and " partikularismus." It is Successful
possible, even allowing a measure of just indignation r^^
against this half-religious, half-political persecution, to prestige
sum up in very favourable fashion both the policy (c-
of the imperial regents in the middle of the ninth
century and the whole systematic government of the
" Isaurians," which had laid the foundation of order
and prosperity during the previous century. The
general moral and social condition of the people
was incomparably superior to any other nation or
group then existing. The practice of arms and the
manlier virtues had once more become popular
among the Byzantine nobles ; and though discretion
tempered valour, they had little to learn even
from the later and more perfect lights of Western
chivalry. At the same time, the military class enjoyed
no undue preponderance. By some obscure and
sagacious measures, the prestige of the provincial
regiment had been modified ; and the army had been
" denationalised " and placed aloof from all civic or
local prejudice and partiality. Equity and law re-
gained their sway and commerce flourished. Wher-
ever the lesser agents of authority threw off control,
the emperor, so far as a single overseer can prove
effective, levelled all, even his own consort, under
iron and inflexible rules which knew " no respect of
persons."

DIVISION B

TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE OF LEGITIMACY

CHAPTER VII

CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE METHODS OF
AUTOCRACY AND IN THE OFFICIAL WORLD FROM
THE REGENCY (MICHAEL III.)

A. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CAUSES DETERMINING
THE DEVELOPMENT

A new g lt IT must be evident to any student of Byzantine

Regmcy6and\ annals tnat from the middle of the ninth century a
Legitimacy, change came over the character and administration
of the " Romans.'' The methods of government
were profoundly modified. In one direction, sover-
eignty became purely Oriental and despotic ; in
another, the peculiar features of a feudal society
emerged and became strong against the palace and
all central control. The period was one of rapid
recovery, increasing confidence, and growing wealth.
The hereditary right of infants was conceded, and
(as we have so often pointed out) side by side with
a legitimate heir grew up the double and rival powers
of the premier and the generalissimo. In the long
minorities of Michael III. or of Basil II., in the per-
petual tutelage of Leo VI. and Constantine VII. a
situation arises closely resembling Scottish history ;
in which, under nominal respect for claims of birth,
the Regency becomes the prize for the strongest and
most adventurous. The Heraclian and Syrian houses
had been remarkable instances of reigning monarchs,
who from father to son never relaxed a personal

188

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 139

control of affairs ; who understood the situation, chose A new
their own ministers, did their own task, and hid Jf^f™
behind no legal fiction that "the king can do no Legitimacy.
wrong." This is the antique tradition of the empire,
that which sets apart the ingenious system of Augustus
from other sovereignties. Accident or real merit
conferred on hereditary princes a rare liking for
work and an unrivalled capacity for taking trouble.
In the middle of the ninth century, at the moment
when the Carolingian house and Caliphate were both
in decay, a new departure was made, — in the regency
during Michael IIL's minority. The four sovereigns,
who between them almost account for 170 years
(886-1055), Leo, Constantine, Basil, Zoe, were alike
born in the purple ; the Augustus retreats into the
palace ; round him collects a valuable atmosphere of
sentiment and affection ; and the turbulent and free-
spoken populace vent their spleen or discontent on
the secondary or derivative regents. Pulcheria had
governed in the name of Theodosius II.; and Irene
had guided and at last supplanted her son, like
the late empress in China. But the minority of
Michael had wider and more lasting consequences.
It became the normal type instead of the exception.
For a quarter of a century, Basil II. tried to revert Personal
to the traditions of direct and laborious personal
monarchy. But this austere example was popular
neither with his subjects nor with his successors.
To the end of our period, the despot continues to
be ignorant and pliable or to struggle at intervals
in vain against the disadvantages of this seclusion.
Few countries, perhaps, are so unlucky as those where
the nominal and responsible master is a dupe. It
was to the interest of the official and the military
class to maintain this illusion. A system like the
Roman, without any fixed principles, in spite of its
apparent rigour and routine, was always exposed to
the sudden shock and revolution which expelled a
dynasty or imposed a tutor and guardian upon an

140 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.B

Personal
monarchy in
abeyance.

Palace-
government.

infant or an imbecile. But the permanent officials
knew how to turn these exceptional episodes to
advantage. The new emperor or regent was solitary
and his new dignity precarious. The sudden veering
of military favour might displace as it had exalted
him ; and if the " king's government was to be
carried on," the newcomer must invoke the old
servants and familiar methods, rely on their advice
and accept their judgment ; or throw himself into
the arms of some powerful " chamberlain " ; or,
once again, divide the chief offices among his own
family. The reign of Basil I., an adroit Armenian
who had known the extreme of want and destitution,
was no exception. He is regarded as the consolidator
of Byzantine despotism, which up to that time had
known mitigating or rival elements ; as the last in a
long series of political reformers from Diocletian and
Justinian to Leo III. But it is more than probable
that the measures, commonly supposed to ensure
the direct initiative and personal will of the sovereign,
merely implied the transference of control from the
Senate to the palace, and in fact only set the seal
upon an accomplished fact, a silent revolution which
had long taken effect.

§ 2. The Civil Service still lingered, a useful
counterpoise to the soldier. But it was no longer
supreme. It had somehow decayed, and its tradi-
tions of training, discipline, and promotion were
forgotten. It had lost that initial axiom of a central-
ised bureaucracy, that the person of the ultimate
authority was indifferent. It had, in a word, become
a partisan. Everywhere else, the notion of an incor-
poreal abstract State or Commonwealth was obscured
by private ends. Feudalism, within fifty years, had
completely ruined the edifice of Charles. The Caliph
without power or conviction had become a prisoner,
the victim of his servants' insolence : he is without a
mission ; he was no longer the vicegerent of God.
When the conception of the State is weak or obscured,

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 141

the personal tie is strong. The loyal affection shown Palace-
by the people to Constantine VII. or to Zoe betrays government.
a kindly indulgence, in which the real aim of the
empire and the conditions of its strength retreat out
of sight. The patrimony was theirs of right, to deal
with as they liked, not a sacred trust. I decline
to believe that the decree removing the Senate from
its share in legislation was a revolution ; that it
startled a critical society by suddenly removing the
veil of a military absolutism. It was no coup detat,
but a formal recognition of a state of things already
existing. The Senate was lost among the nominees
or the slaves of Caesar. Even the laws were a
privilege of his household. We need not be deceived
into the belief that Caesar gained by this promulga-
tion of autocracy. An ignorant and secluded mon- The people
arch only ratifies the lowest or most persuasive voice, p^^f
is at the mercy of the latest speaker. It is incon- undisguised
ceivable that Basil either desired or claimed to be Autocracy-
solely responsible. The new form of the constitu-
tion, the temper of the age, the limited intelligence
of the people, demanded a single source of authority,
a unique claim to obedience. The monarchy (now
become a patrimony) had to be expressed in purely
monarchic terms. In procedure, in influence, in
consequences, not the smallest change was to be
observed. Only the terms and phrases were more
frank. A monarch is either a general surrounded
by his staff-corps, a president surrounded by his
assessors, or a master surrounded by his slaves ; for
the government of one is either military, civilian, or
of the household and patriarchal type. The jealous
rivalry between the two first elements did not cease
in this age ; but it was held in check by a universal
acknowledgment, neither servile nor hypocritical,
that the emperor was absolute master in his own
dominions of life and chattel. This temper it is
difficult for us to realise to-day. Basil I., without
effort or talent of his own, stepped into an unques-

142 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

The people
press the
claims of
undisguised
Autocracy.

Obscure
economic
causes at
work.

tioned heritage of absolute prerogative. It is easy
to understand that a ring or a clique will in their
own interests proclaim their pious adherence to auto-
cracy. But it is not so easy to understand the
sincerity of a whole people, outspoken and intolerant
of wrong, bent on denying their own freedom and
loading their prince with an intolerable burden and
every predicate of a divine omnipotence. Yet it is
useless to repeat the first axioms of liberalism and to
preach a self-satisfied discourse on the servility of
the Greeks. The patrimonial idea was popular ; and
in an age of great mildness, amid order and free
speech, the populace (at least in the capital) were more
jealous of their sovereign's rights than of their own.
The reigns of Basil and Leo are not explicit as is
the succeeding age. It is not easy to estimate the
influences which guided and transformed the con-
stitution. Obscure currents met and crossed beneath
the surface, leaving grave but anonymous results.
But this much we say with confidence. Not without
popular and official consent did the Amorian or
Armenian house settle into the comfortable enjoy-
ment of the chief throne on earth. The secondary
powers in the State (whether civil or military) saw
their own advantage furthered and safeguarded by
this acknowledgment of lordship. Under the pretext
of the unique imperial will, personal interest could
be followed. It was no individual merit or ambition
which hastened this change. Under a formal abso-
lutism the emperor ceased to be the effective ruler.

§ 3. I cannot forbear from quoting the admirable
words of Finlay in this connection (ii., chap, i.) :
11 The government of the Eastern Empire was always
'systematic and cautious. Reforms were slowly

< effected ; but when the necessity was admitted,
1 great changes were gradually completed. Genera-

< tions, however, passed away without men noticing
'how far they had quitted the customs of their
' fathers and entered on new paths leading to very

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 143

' different habits, thoughts, and institutions. The Obscure
1 reign of no one emperor, if we except that of Leo [the
1 Isaurian], embraces a revolution in the institutions work.
'of the State, completed in a single generation.
' Hence it is that Byzantine history loses the in-
• terest to be derived from individual biography. It
' steps over centuries, marking rather the movement
1 of generations of mankind than the acts of indi-
' vidual emperors and statesmen ; and it became a
' didactic essay on political progress instead of a
' living picture of man's actions. In the days of the
'liberty of Athens, the life of each leader embraces
' the history of many revolutions, and the mind of a
' single individual seems often to guide and modify
< their course. But in the years of Constantinopolitan
'servitude emperors and people are borne slowly
' onward by a current of which we are not always
' certain that we can trace the origin or follow the
' direction." — Now such a current is set in motion
by physical, economic, and social causes ; not by
private ambition or deliberate policy. Among
these impersonal influences I am inclined to suggest
(i) The replacement of the population since the
plague of Constantine V. (c. 750) : (2) the agricul-
tural changes to be dimly descried in the legislation
of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries : (3) the
changes in the Law during the same period : (4) the
final settlement of the Iconoclastic controversy in the
triumph of orthodoxy, — the failure of the Protestant
reform-movement: (5) the undoubted influx of wealth
and bullion into the Eastern realm, perhaps fright-
ened away from the moribund empires of Charles
or Harun. On each of these I shall say a few words
and pass on to a tentative estimate of the several
influences on the manner, the methods, and personnel
of the government. The critic is largely left in
these matters to conjecture ; and the only value of
the general student is to propose with diffidence
certain avenues or mines of research, which may

144 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

(1) Change in or may not repay the fuller exploration of the
population; specialist

(i.) I cannot claim for the plague of Constantine
V. the same far-reaching effects as attended the
pestilence of Justinian and Procopius two centuries
before ; but I believe it finished the disorganisation
of the past hundred and fifty years. The European
provinces no longer counted in the administration.
The populace was barbarous and artificial. Em-
perors deported or decanted at will savage or trouble-
some settlers without tradition into waste places.
Greece (especially in its commerce and urban wealth)
recovered rapidly from the desolation of the Heraclian
age, without contributing to the life or control of
the empire : her two most conspicuous figures are
women, the Empress Irene and the widow Danielis,
benefactress of Basil I. Under the Isaurians, the
" Roman " Empire became entirely Asiatic ; pre-
tenders, officials, and upper classes were from Lesser
Asia, or from Armenia. In Lesser Asia was gradu-
ally rising a feudal aristocracy, exercised in arms,
who will one day seize and enslave the capital
to a single family (1181). In spite of the security
and " quiet transmission of hereditary wealth and
position " which marked the Isaurian reform move-
ment, the Byzantine population was artificial, easily
shifted, and subject to rapid changes of character. The
same is true of any modern capital recruited from the
provinces and draining their surplus, soon to perish
in the new environment : the Berliners have within
forty years been almost ousted by a foreign race.
But this is in a singular degree true of the capri-
cious if prudent creation of Constantine. An old
inhabitant returning after an absence of twenty years
would find the personnel of the government, the
composition of the crowd, unrecognisable. The build-
ings, palace and temple, convent and hippodrome,
were the same ; the same liturgy in the one, the same
ceremonies, equally sacred and inviolable, in the'other.

CH.VII THE ROMAN EMPIRE 145

But Church and State were largely served by those (l) Change in
who could found no families; who left at their population;
demise a place vacant for any chance comer. With
the rapid extinction of a former social order, the
welcome extended to exceptional courage, adroitness,
or servility, the pure Asiatic invasion of high places
under the Isaurians, — the plague contributed both in
capital and provinces to hasten the changes and
transform the face of the country. In the former
the effects were more sudden and more serious.

§ 4. It will be as well to treat here the (2) agricul- (2)Agri-
tural development in the eighth and ninth centuries, so
far as we can form an indistinct outline from the
later imperial legislation. The main features of
agrarian tenure from the time of Theodosius II. and
Justinian may have resembled those of most other
nations. There was at the outset a broad distinction
between the lordless village-community, and the
seigneurial domain. The yeomen or peasants hold-
ing in something like co-parcenage tilled the former ;
serfs and foreigners the latter. The history of East
and West alike at this period enables us to trace the
gradual obliteration of distinction between the status
of the freeholder and the villein. Economic circum-
stances combined to depress the one ; Christian, legal,
and humanitarian influences to improve the other.
Both met in a middle lot from which the best and
worst features of either were expelled. And first for
(a) the village community. — The individual and his (a) Communal
rights, private property, testamentary disposition, are mlla9es-
the creation of Roman law and Roman Jurists.
Like all absolute and " egalitarian " governments, the
empire preferred to confront atoms and units, not
corporations. And if corporations, municipal, rural,
or commercial, formed a large part of Roman life, it
was for the convenience of the tax-collector. The
peculiar mark of the society was the combination of
corporate responsibility with the fullest recognition
of private interests. In the Teutonic "view of

VOL. II. K

146 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

(a) Communal frank pledge/' in the rudimentary institutions of
milages. justice and police (for example, among the Chinese),
the State depends on the family or the local com-
munity for the discovery and punishment of crime.
But the Roman Empire is frankly fiscal in its legis-
lation. The inhabitants, it might appear, were singu-
larly law-abiding ; and the serious business of the
governor is not the maintenance of order or the
redress of wrong, but the collection of the revenue.
The curial system had arisen (I will not say, had
been invented) to ensure the regular payment of
taxes. In like manner, the village presented a certain
solidarity ; all were responsible for the whole, and
each for all. To-day, the loss in rating on an un-
occupied house is divided proportionally among the
more fortunate owners. An idle farmer, unable to
meet his quotumy would amerce his neighbours, co-
partners in the village estate. It has been found that
every system of land-tax must be in some degree
inequitable and oppressive ; and a jfixed sum, regu-
lated on a cadastral survey, at the opening of an
indiction, soon presses unequally and becomes out of
date. The corporate or mutual responsibility is not
more unfair than other methods ; but it caused dis-
tress, excited comment, was extended from the poor
yeomen partners (consortes, OIJLOKYJVCTOL) of the defaulter
to the neighbouring proprietors (who were not techni-
cally on the consortium register), and was abolished
amid a genuine outburst of rejoicing. (For Basil II.,
true to the Lecapenian policy, " war on the rich
landowner," spread the extra amount on the adjacent
private estates ; and Romanus III. finally swept away
the ' A\\tj\eyyvov about 1030, and won the same
favour as Anastasius some five hundred years before,
for annulling the Xpvvdpyvpov.) As in the Russian
" Mir," the community had some interest in the
efficiency of each. The Roman village did not per-
haps possess the right to send to Siberia a slovenly
farmer or a wastrel ; but it could protest against the

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 147

sale of land to the unworthy or incapable, because (a)Communal
all were concerned in the good tillage of each several Vllla9es-
holding. So, in Western feudalism, where the lord
embodies, as it were, the impersonal abstraction of
the village commonwealth and concentrates its in-
terests and duties, he controlled the transfer of land
so as to ensure the union of military service and
landed possession. Just as the constant payment of
taxes in the eastern, so in the western empire the
supply of sturdy retainers for warfare was the para-
mount interest. As the one aimed at filling the
coffers of the State, so the other aimed at securing
the person and property of the petty lord. Sales in
the Roman village were forbidden, except to a fellow-
member of the township, vicanus; strangers could
not purchase ; and it was only natural, if the ad-
joining landlords were made responsible for the Encroach-
township's default or defalcations, that they should
claim pre-emption, as chiefly concerned in the control
of the " common " estate. It may be suggested that
the very means employed to depress the rich owner
merely resulted in exalting him at the expense of his
poorer neighbours. It is short-sighted folly to-day,
as under Basil II., to seek to relieve the poor by
taxing the rich. The wealthy have ample means of
recouping or indemnifying themselves for such loss ;
and all taxation in the end presses upon the lower
classes. Its pressure has been with justice compared
to a stone bounding downstairs and reposing its
whole weight upon the floor below ; and to curtail
the luxuries of the rich is often to extinguish the
livelihood of the poor. Under cover of their responsi-
bilities and with much show of justice, the landowners
interfered in the concerns of the village and the
disposal of property there. The independence of
the yeoman-community was threatened ; the pro-
prietor obtained a footing inside the communal circle,
and must have gradually secured the chief influence.
The State, in the West, by abandoning or forgetting

148 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Encroach- its functions, drove the poor man into the patronage
of the nearest squire ; a voluntary "commendation"
bargained away the liberty of thousands. In the
East, the State, in its very praiseworthy concern and
parental anxiety for the weaker, directly hastened
the extinction of the freeholder.

(2, b) Private § 5. In (b) the private estates (^oVrara), the
estates. owner might be a monastery or a church (as in

Turkey the mosques, or our own glebes and estates
of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners) ; the " Crown "
(as the Duchy of Lancaster) ; or individuals. The
tenantry who tilled the land were divided exactly
as in a Western manor into the freeholders and the
villeins. The former (liberi coloni, /uLia-Ocorol) paid
rent in kind or coin, and at the end of thirty years
could not be removed from the soil they had culti-
vated for a generation. It is easy to see how this
privilege or shield against arbitrary notice became
later a sign of bondage, when the serf's lot was
raised and the free tenant was depressed to meet
him. We may suppose that in the most favour-
able time, their condition differed little from the
freeholder (liberi tenentes) in a modern manor, or
a tenant of a Scottish estate under feu-duties. The
free-rent (otherwise high- or chief-rent) being paid,
possession of the estate and the right of transmission
on the same terms were guaranteed. One difference
there might be : the free-rents of a manor in Eng-
land are fixed according to the value of money seven
centuries back, and bear no imaginable relation to
the present value of the land. We may presume
that the Byzantine proprietor was not so strictly
tied by the " dead hand." — The (2) villeins or serfs
(evonroypacfroi, adscripticii) correspond to our copy-
holder, taken in to work an estate, housed and fed,
like the inmate of the earlier Roman barracoons
(the rural ergastula). These, too (and for a doubtful
motive), are " bound to the soil," — whether to secure
their tenure or to safeguard the master against

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 149

desertion (fy)a7reTe/a), it is hard to say. Technically (2, b) Private
freemen, they seem to have at first enjoyed this e8tates-
immunity as a unique right — which became after-
wards (like curial privilege) an intolerable bondage.
But in civilised societies the indigent citizen
is always worse off, because of less value, than
the slave (as Abolitionists have discovered) : as
the humble and honest ratepayer out of work is
worse off than the criminal in his prison, the un-
employable in his workhouse. The status of the
two tended to become identical. Justinian (xi.
48/21) professes himself puzzled to discover a
distinction. The personal slave was raised to the
condition of the predial serf of later villeinage, the
prototype of the copyholder to-day, as yet on land
unenfranchised, and subject, not to the fixed or
nominal relief of the freeholder, but to the "fine
arbitrary " of lord and steward. Yet however much
Christian notions of equality, or Juristic and Stoical
views of equity, may have had influence, the chief
motive (here as elsewhere in human improvement)
was fiscal. The government wished to be able to
put its hand on a subject at will and with certainty.
There was to be no evasion of duties once incurred,
leaving a status once entered, changing a career
once chosen. Everything was done to stereotype
and formulate. A man took up his father's pro-
fession, with his estate, patronymic, and duties. The
peasant was encouraged no less than the curial to
consider his cabin and holding his own. While the
emperors transported whole colonies and altered the
dialect of an entire district, the spirit of the Roman
government kept the classes in duress, and the
peasant " nailed to the sod."

§ 6. The first sign of altered conditions is met in First definite
the No/xo? T&epyucos of Leo III. And it must be r(f°™s}
remembered that this reign (717-740) was the first democratic in
breathing-space since the fall of Maurice. In the character.
obscure night of the seventh century, the thematic

150 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

First definite system came to birth. Whole tracts of country
r(/°rm ceased to be imperial ; and were filled with wild
democratic in gipsies and settlers of various origin. The Latin law,
character. language, and traditions were gradually superseded
by local customs, barbarous, Greek, and Oriental
influences. Within eighty years, an emperor pro-
poses to make his capital in the West, and a
successor surrenders Rome with indifference.

The first moments of leisure (from struggles for very
life) were given to the reorganisation of the empire
on Protestant lines. Leo and Constantine (whose
administrative and legal edifice was complete about
750) do not merely follow the current ; they also
initiate, with a vigour and an individuality rare in
Byzantine history. We would gladly know how far
the agricultural code recognises and merely modifies
an existing condition, or attempts to enforce an ideal.
Did Leo abolish serfdom and its incidents, or find it
gone ? We have no mention of glebal bondage, no
class of evairoypafyoi, no freemen owing suit and
honourable service to a lord. May we hazard a
guess that the caste-system of hereditary status had
been swept away in the storms of the seventh
century, and given place to a new freedom of con-
tract? In the class of village-communities (a) a new
type of Socialistic " Mir " had arisen, corporations
perhaps formed to take over land which had gone
out of cultivation, like joint-stock companies with
us. It is not difficult to suppose that this method
of tenure was adopted in the Asiatic provinces
gradually cleared of Saracens, and in the European
parts (where imperial colonies or voluntary settle-
ments bid fair to hold Slavs in check). For the
age of Leo was no period of decay or lethargy : the
religious crusades put new life and vigour into
the motley assortment of races and peoples known as
the " Romans"; and a general recovery, financial and
economic, took place when the immediate peril of the
capital was averted. On private estates (b) tenants

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 151

are represented as free from service and bounden First definite
obligation : the rent is a matter of agreement be- r(ef°*m*
tween landlord and lessee : (i) sometimes, as in the democratic in
agri decumates near the sources of Rhine and Danube character.
in the first century, the fjLoprirai paid a tenth of the
produce ; (2) at others, the landlord equipped his
tenant with stock and capital, and as in the mttayer
system, diverted one-half of the profits to cover
his outlay and risk ; the tenant kept the remaining
moiety (rj/mia-eiaa-rai). The free covenant or contract
supersedes the archaic feudal tie. The Iconoclastic
reform, like its " extreme Left," the Paulician move-
ment, hated spiritual pride and hierarchic pretensions.
The doctrine of equality was recognised, and a
liberty of agreement on equal terms was taught and
encouraged. But the individualist and democratic
efforts of Leo and Constantine were not crowned
with conspicuous success.

§ 7. The Iconoclasts had favoured the honest Reaction

yeoman and sturdy independence : but the victory (c- 85°) "J

, . , J interest of
of the orthodox, complete by 850, secured (so far as church and

we may judge) the interest of the feudal and spiritual Magnate.
peers. An era of great families begins, reposing in
the main no doubt upon hereditary skill in war, but
largely also upon landed estate. While Basil I. may
seem to be the occasional master of the Church, he is
in reality its puppet and its pensioner. Reaction had
set in ; the tenants' advantage was overlooked, and the
obscure legislation shows some resemblance to our
own Agricultural Rating Bill, whereby a certain relief
is given to the parson and the proprietor. Once again,
free contract was abolished ; and tenants chained to
their allotted place, as once the old curials to their
order. The landlords complained that the modest
rental of one-tenth was insufficient ; and within our
own memory, estates of heavy land have been left
derelict because unable to bear even the first
charge of the tithe. Taxes had increased under the
" Isaurians," and no doubt bore most heavily on the

152

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

^Reaction
(c. 850} in
interest of
Church and
Magnate.

opulent. It was now their turn : they not only
relieved themselves, under an upstart and a usurper,
of fiscal burdens, but they encroached on the
common lands — just as in England, we trace the
gradual extinction of communal rights and the
exclosure of open spaces — during the time and
perhaps in unconscious revenge of the movement
towards a barren political equality (1760-1832).
The Byzantine noble perhaps could show better
right ; he had absorbed the neighbouring village-
lands, by purchase (in right of pre-emption), by loan,
mortgage, or advance, in all the well-known methods
by which smaller holdings are merged into the great
estate, like streams in the ocean. In spite of imperial
favour, the free element in the rural population had
well-nigh disappeared — the yeomen, whose place
can " never be supplied." The tenth century is the
epoch of feudal aggression and of ineffective attempts
to stem the tide. The latifundia (whether in the age
of Pliny, or of Romanus and Basil, or to-day) imply
a decreasing and lethargic population, economic
mischief, ruined agriculture, and a reversal to an
archaic and less civilised form of society. These
overgrown estates, studded with the now ruined
homesteads of the small occupier, imply another
Soldiers' fiefs danger, — the decay of the recruiting-ground of
the Army. The recuperative power displayed so
often and in so surprising a manner by the Eastern
empire is due to the new military system, which in
the crusading era (620-730) supplanted the foreign
mercenaries of Justinian's age. The Byzantine army
became the most national, the best equipped, the
most perfectly disciplined in the world. The
emperors took part in their parade and exercises
in time of peace, and shared their perils and hard-
ships in the annual campaign. So careful was the
general staff of the lives of its soldiers that taunts
have ever since been levelled at their cowardly and
defensive tactics. Their pay was secured, and they

absorbed.

CH.VII THE ROMAN EMPIRE 153

were supported by allotments. These were supposed Soldiers' fiefs
to be inalienable ; but in some way not very clear absorbed-
to the historian, nobles and grandees (oi Swarol) who
had formed a dangerous and unpatriotic element
under Justin and Maurice (565-602) absorbed these
farms, whether by mortgage or secret transfer.
Heraclius had once told the semi-feudal levies of
Priscus1 that they were now soldiers of the State,
not the men-at-arms of a powerful citizen; the
reverse was now the case. We may suspect that
in an age when a Chamberlain of the Court could
arm 3000 domestics and secure for his nominee the
throne he could not occupy himself (963), retired
or still active soldiers in the provinces would feel
under especial obligations to the wealthy general
in the castles of Paphlagonia or Cappadocia.

§ 8. About this time, that is, under Leo VI., a law Estates of
was repealed, useful in intent, but now out of date °j^akl^
and for long a dead letter. Under the earlier against
empire, it was generally understood that a pro- encroachment
vincial governor should not cement alliance or
acquire property within the sphere of his duties.
The soldier and the bureaucrat were members of
two detached corporations, which were sedulously
kept apart from the ordinary interests of the citizen
and the taxpayer. Under Justinian (c. 530), the
high official was directly forbidden to buy landed
property at all : the emperor looked with sus-
picion on the sympathy of classes, the concordia
ordinum, and desired to make his soldiers and func-
tionaries as unconcerned and aloof as the ministers
of the Church. But in East and West alike
a tendency set in which obliged wealth to find
the only outlet for capital in landed estate, and
firmly united power and influence with territorial
possession. The peculiar circumstances of the
empire (to which history offers no precise parallel)
might have betrayed to Leo the Wise the im-

1 Niceph. (de Boor, p. 6) : vol. i. 282, ii. 84.

154 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Estates of
officials :
struggle
against
encroachment
of grandees.

Attempt to
restrict
Monastic
property
(c. 965).

prudence of removing the prohibition. In spite of
intermittent methods of autocracy, the sovereign was
nearly sinking into the puppet of noble factions, the
Venetian Doge, or the British monarch in the time
of the Georges. But the major domus became himself
the emperor, and was plus royaliste que le roi. The
legislation of the hundred years following the acces-
sion of Lecapenus shows the determined efforts of the
State to shake off feudalism and its incidents. The
Novels of Romanus I. (922), of his son-in-law,
Constantine VII., 947 ; Romanus II., 963 ; Nice-
phorus II., 964, 967 (3) ; Basil II., 988, 996 (2),
have a single aim, to prevent the absorption of the
small owners and the dangerous destitution of a
trained soldiery. To the lasting credit of the
Byzantine government, these soldiers never became
a menace to the public peace, never dissolved into
roving bands, more dangerous to friend than to foe.
But this excellent discipline was secured by fixed and
regular pay and a certain home-pension for old age.
In the recovered provinces the chief beneficiaries
were the court-officials : the story of John Zimisces'
complaint and death is one of the best-known
incidents of this period, and is perhaps even more
valuable as evidence, if it be but a legend. It
betrays another problem of conflicting aims and
interests, which would one day tear the State apart
(quandoque distrahant Rempubh'cam, Tac. Ann. i. 4) and
open the way for the barbarian.

§ 9. In another direction, the victory of the Orthodox
was attended with mischievous results. The funda-
mental difference of Eastern and Western monachism
is well known. Under the Merovingians (especially
in the last century of their nominal rule) convenience
no less than pious respect granted extensive rights
to prelates and abbeys. The tenants of a monastery
were better off than the serfs of the secular neigh-
bour ; and the corporation (like a college to-day)
was a popular landlord. It is needless to repeat the

OH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 155

praise deservedly bestowed on these early founda- Attempt to

tions, custodians of the remnants of arts, letters, and restrwt.

Monastic
civilisation, and sole pioneers in the improvement or property

reclaiming of waste land. Such does not appear to (c- d65)-
have been the experience of the Eastern empire.
The " immaterial" life, " equal to the angels," was
here less practical and operative. The government
in Eastern countries is despotic, largely because the
only class able to create or guide public opinion is
otherwise engaged, in meditation, divine studies, or
preparation for death. Now it would be unfair to
depreciate the part played by the Greek Church in
the political sphere, according to its lights. I cannot
detect the grovelling servility of which it is con-
stantly accused. The instances of a frank and con-
scientious opposition to the Court are at least as
frequent. No one would deny that it provided a valu-
able counterpoise to that secular centralism which
is the goal and bane of modern States. The tyranny
of a government (such as some fondly dream of as
an ideal), in which all the resources of science and
administrative machine are directed relentlessly to the
fulfilment of worldly ends, — would prove unbear-
able. I have elsewhere noted that the gravest prob-
lem of future politicians will lie not in the academic
inquiry, " Where is sovereignty enthroned ? " but
11 Where is the counterpoise to its now unlimited
power ? " The Greek Church performed its duty
with courage. It never became wholly secularised
or a portion for cadets. Theophylact (whom in the
text I have compared to John XII.) is an almost
unique instance of the common Western type, — the
hunting prelate, more at home in the stable than the
church. Imperial influence and caprice may choose
the patriarch ; but there are no Marozias or Counts
of Tusculum. — It is impossible always to sympathise
with the Church, even while we concede the value
of its frankness. Piety, which in the West was
preserving the rudiments of culture and social life,

156 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Attempt to
restrict
Monastic
property
(c. 965).

well-nigh ruined the empire in the East. The Icono-
clasts struggled for the very existence of the secular
State. The lavish gifts to monasteries, the building
of new houses, had not the same practical value as
in the West. Such property was lost to the State.
It might and did become a house of idleness, a scene
of desolation, rather than a smiling oasis in the
wilderness of secular properties. All governments
have at one time or another been obliged to confis-
cate existing Church revenues, or limit carefully the
right of bequeathal. Charles Martel had in France an
aim similar to his Eastern contemporaries, Leo III.
and Constantine V. The Novels of Nicephorus, a
century later, betray the same anxiety to limit the
revenues of ecclesiastical establishments, while warmly
commending the erection of new foundations in
waste districts. A passion for the monastic and
celibate life was depopulating ; and the government
had to strive against other causes than that of war
or pestilence in the maintenance of the census.
Nicephorus himself is the last person to be justly
accused of hatred of monks. So far from being
a mangeur des moines, he was in sympathy with
their life and aims. He himself helped to build
several houses on Mount Athos ; and his daily
prayers and ascetic practice estranged his wife, his
friends, and that fickle and luxurious populace in the
capital, who looked for other qualities in an emperor
than prowess and sanctity, who while professing
reverence for the monkish habit and ideal, preferred
to perform their own devotions by proxy.

B. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE LANDED
INTEREST

Economic § 10. The government, then, during this period

fB^tium; (85°-IOO°)> whatever the personal predilection of

Bullionism! individual rulers, sought consistently to curtail large

accumulations in private hands or in ecclesiastical

CH.VII THE ROMAN EMPIRE 157

corporations. But human nature and economic con- Economic
ditions were against them. Two fatal misconceptions fallacies. °f
spoilt the beneficence of the imperial system from Bullionism.'
the outset : (i) The belief that the government could
only be strong and secure by keeping individuals
poor, by setting watch, like some jealous dragon of
fairy-tale or mythology, over vast treasures of unused
bullion ; (2) that the sole wealth of a country lies
in the land — we are familiar with this latter fallacy
to-day. Advance of money for commercial enter-
prise was dangerous and uncertain ; legislation seems
to have been invariably on the side of the borrower.
There was no credit-system ; and trade fell into
foreign hands, as in Turkey, and largely in Russia
at the present day. The unique outlet and oppor- Land, unique
tunity for capital lay in the purchase of more landed
property ; and when this investment had turned out
profitably, in the purchase of still more.1 On their
part, the indigent neighbours of a successful land-
lord had no resource but to mortgage or dispose
outright in the bad harvest, the fiscal urgency, or the

1 One curious outlet for capital must be mentioned, by which a valuable
reversion or immediate dignity and salary were purchased from the State.
It is the practice of the more temperate despotisms to sell office, partly, no
doubt, to enlist as large a number of supporters as possible for the existing
regime, partly to replenish a deficit in the Treasury. The practice was
long continued and defended under the short-lived but glorious centralised
autocracy of the French Bourbons : the purchase of function and nobility
was one among many means adopted to render harmless the privilege of
the noble. The details of such offers among the Byzantines are peculiar
and attractive as investments : the dignity of protospathaire and a salary
of 10 per cent, could be obtained by a single capital payment. Other
sinecures, providing both title, precedence, and income (like the lordship
of a manor) produced about a quarter of this emolument, but could be sold
and bequeathed. The residents of the capital, to whom such tempting
offers were open and perhaps (as Bury suggests) confined, would have every
interest in preserving the Constitution, which with land gave the only
secure return on capital outlay. There was discontent and conspiracy and
personal hatred in Byzantine society; there were no disaffected classes,
there were no political reformers; the utmost Radicalism (to except a
possible socialistic movement under Michael II.) was the removal of an
individual who failed to fulfil his part, in a scheme which all considered
ideally perfect and final.

158 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Land, unique
investment
for capital.

Lecapenus
(c. 930} and
the landed
gentry :
Nicephorus
(c. 965).

personal failure. Jews, growing at this time through-
out the world supreme in trade, do not appear to
have turned their attention to the pledging of landed
estate ; it is probable that they were prevented
by custom, prejudice, or direct legislation. Thus
piety, economic conditions, or fallacies, and the
natural (as well as spiritual) law, " to him who hath shall
be given," combined to stultify a consistent policy.

§ 11. Lecapenus forbids further purchase by mag-
nates from the poor, unless they are related ; and
permits a valid and unquestionable title to such new
acquirements only after ten years. (We may ask,
whether the former owner was allowed to resume
when he wished, on repayment of the sum he received
for the property ? for this no answer is forthcoming.)
But the middle of the reign of this prince was ruinous
to the small holder and the agricultural interest. In
the bad seasons and distressful winters (927-932)^16
poor were obliged to make over their farms to their
rich neighbours, to become tenants where they had
been owners: it was in this way that the land of
Egypt became Pharaoh's property when Joseph was
premier. The yeomanry or "statesmen" rapidly
diminished in numbers. The stubborn resistance
offered by grandee and churchman to the interference
of government was neither purely selfish nor un-
patriotic. The noble could find no other safe invest-
ment ; the churchman conscientiously believed that
no hindrance should be put to the gifts of the faithful.
It is the expedient of the puzzled historian to im-
pute events to self-seeking ; but man is more often
an idealist and (unconsciously) an " altruist " than
the economist or the theologian is ready to allow.
In the end, the great Asiatic estates and the feudal
conditions they produced, led to the downfall of the
" Roman commonwealth " and the creation of a new
State. But the landed gentry had no deliberate
design of upsetting the old order; and the church-
man was only concerned in recovering from the

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 159

sacrilegious the money left to God and his poor ; in Lecapenus
assuring independence for the Church in its appoint- ^e landed
ments, and for the pious laity freedom of donation or gentry:
bequest. Nicephorus, half-monk, incurred the dis-
pleasure of the Church by his attempt to secure con-
trol of Church affairs ; John, his assassin, purchased
immunity for the act by resigning all such claim ;
Basil II., unable to struggle against the current, re-
stores the right to accept and hold property. We
are amused at Luitprand's righteous indignation at
the episcopal " annates " which Nicephorus exacted
from the Bishop of Leucara. But such an instance
supplies us with another warning against a hasty
dismissal of human motive as selfish. The Church
fought with a good conscience and a firm resolve
in the defence of its rights. The emperors, whether
Leo III. or Nicephorus, or Otto I. or Henry V.,
were equally clear in their own course. The feudal
noble who set at naught all higher control, and
wished to be undisputed sovereign in his manor or
barony, was in the same way justified. Even the
astute and pacific chamberlains who in later times
starved the army and spent the taxes in State
pageants and popular amusements, believed they
were doing the State good service, in repressing
the aggressive and warlike class, in securing civilian
supremacy, and in warding off the perils of disorder
and military law. All were right in a measure, yet
all were wrong.

§ 12. We come now to the changes in the statute- (3) Legisla-
book, to the comparison of the new Codes or revi- ?/^^an5'
sion of the Iconoclast and Basilian dynasties, to the against
lessons derived from the final triumph of the spirit Plutocracy-
and text of Justinian. Roman Law, individualist
and contractual, grew up in the decay of national
distinction and of religious faith. It replaced the
sanctions of a citizen-State and a narrow ancestral
religion by a wider outlook, in which the law of nature
held sway, the enemy of custom, privilege, and

160

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

(3) Legisla-
tion of
' Isaurians '
against
Plutocracy.

exclusiveness. It was a fitting counterpart to an
imperial system, which for the first time upset the
barriers of race and creed. It was "humanitarian";
and where it was not contractual, it was tinged with
emotion and sympathy. Its severest penalties were
reserved for the plotter against the universal peace ;
that is, treason against the emperor its embodiment.
Nor need we feel astonishment that the system which
most completely subordinated the individual should
have been the first to insist on his rights, his original
liberty and equality. For it was by the free choice
of the people and in virtue of their express mandate
that the emperor ruled, fought, administered, and
legislated. The words of Justinian are no empty
boast or hypocritical subterfuge; the emperor and
his law stand for freedom : " Pro libertate quant et
fovere et tueri Romanis legibus et prcecipue nostro Numini
peculiare est." It tended to represent every relation
of life as the result of free covenant and convention ;
and under it slavery and the patria potestas receive
the most serious modification. The age of Justinian
did not originate it ; and the sovereign merely
gathered up the parts into a kind of working co-
herence. His code shows scanty traces of Christian
influence ; and it is reserved for the Unitarian Leo
to endeavour to give expression to the tenets of the
Gospel in the administration of justice, and the con-
ception of status, of covenant, and of crime. Edited
in a foreign language which became rapidly un-
intelligible, the work of Justinian was partially trans-
lated and in time everywhere forgotten or misapplied.
The century between the author's death and the
western visit of Constans III. witnessed a great
upheaval in every part of the realm. The invading
Slavs brought with them their primitive habits ;
and in the distress of Asia Minor and the overthrow
of the old civil order, local and customary law
superseded the catholic enactments of the Code;
while Christian practice and ecclesiastical canons

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 161

gave guidance in default of any other. By 740, (3) Legisla-
when the joint-emperors produced their 'E/cAoyi, the f^jJL,.?
official world, having respite from danger, enjoyed against
a welcome leisure for considering its heritage. On Autocracy.
all sides, institutions were in ruins ; only memories
and traditions survived. The new order endeavoured
to combine existing practice, largely Christian or
canonist, with the almost obsolete text-books. The
Ecloga shows the dangers of the sea, the wide-
spread influence of Christian principles, the presence
of alien elements in the population : it sought to
reconcile civil and canon law. The levelling spirit
of Presbyterian Iconoclasm is detected in the abolition
of scales of penalty, determined by the station and
property of the culprit. The plutocratic basis of
old Roman society disappears, at least in theory,
and all are equal before the law. The Ecloga was
then a token of a democratic reform.

§ 13. The treatment of the wealthy is the chief Problems of
problem which faces the ancient and the modern
commonwealth. The Athenian democracy ostra-
cised, intimidated, and perhaps finally destroyed an
independent class by the various methods of the
" super-tax." An Oriental monarchy encourages the
accumulation of wealth by officials and private
persons alike, that the inevitable forfeiture may
be a rich prize, that the government may without
ill-feeling gather in ill-gotten gains, and even with
a show of justice confiscate the estate of the
oppressor. The modern State has at present no
settled policy. But it regards the capitalist with
increasing suspicion and dislike. Though it would
resent the comparison, it desires to become, like the
Eastern potentate, the heir of his wealth. But to
his initiative, his enterprise, his business methods, it
cannot succeed of right ; and it is too early to decide
the vexed question whether the impersonal control
of bureaucratic government is as effective as that
of a single interested manager. The State (it would

VOL. II. L

162 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Problems of appear to-day) believes its duty to consist in the
state and grudging protection of wealth by general order and
police, that it may penalise any lucky turn, may seize
upon the growing spoils, and find new ways of
relieving the adventurous or the fortunate of their
surplus. This is not the best education for those
who profess to be the rightful heirs of these enter-
prises and industries. One would hesitate to entrust
the practical management of a "going concern"
to those who had hitherto contented themselves with
exacting " arbitrary fines." Now the Roman Empire,
The rich kept perhaps the wisest of political institutions, had con-
al™ffrom ferred on wealth a recognised place of dignity, while
'earlier™ " by giving publicity and prestige it had curtailed its
empire. mischievous and indirect influence : — for in a modern
State the outlets are many for secret manipulation
by a powerful class or indeed corporation, suffering,
as they suppose, from unjust treatment. The rich
were installed in a monopoly of municipal power.
The poorer classes were committed to their care and
kindly supervision, and taught to look to them for
the support of religious festivals, corporate banquets,
and the public amusements, which formed the chief
business (I will not say, distraction) of urban life.
If the wealthy had obvious privileges, they had
heavy duties. They had the burden, but not the
direction, of affairs. The civil service ^and the army
were recruited from the needy and ambitious. The
supreme place seldom lay within the timid grasp
of the rich noble ; the Gordian family (238—244)
is perhaps the only instance where high birth and
fastidious luxury are raised to the purple. Yet
on the whole this division of labour succeeded.
Certainly the classes in their urban centres lived '
together on amicable terms ; the dangers and dis-
abilities of opulence were too conspicuous for envy.
The curial system exposed the perils of the smaller
owners ; and the strangely detached order of Senators
(who had never perhaps visited the metropolis or sat

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 163

in the Curia) was without defence against a prefect The rich kept

faced with a deficit. The reigns, for example, of alooffrom
__,,.. j r T V • / affairs under

Valentmian I., f375, and of Justinian, f 565, are earlier

marked by merciless official raids against private
wealth, of which, perhaps, the emperor himself was
culpably ignorant, if not an accomplice. Natural
causes and public calamities extinguished the opulent
class during the seventh century. When the Icono-
clasts began to renew and to reconstruct society, the
Church and the official class were alone visible ; and
below, at an immense interval, were the alien factors
and elements fermenting in obscurity.

§ 14. Religious prejudice combined with social Legal reforms
changes to nullify the legal services of the Iconoclasts. °r^^a^ibans'
The Basilian code (complete c. 900) reverts to the 900.
spirit and letter of Justinian ; warmly accuses the
ill-advised efforts of Leo and Constantine ; and in
reviving the ancient and Roman text does not even
take the trouble to eliminate the anachronistic
clauses, which had reference to a state of society
long passed away. Criminal law becomes more
merciful, the death-sentence infrequent, — and we
must compare with shame the Byzantine usage with
the careless and savage sentences of our statute-
book down to recent memory, — when " men must Mercy in the
hang that jurymen may dine." It is suggested, not Code'
without reason, that mutilation, which largely took
its place, was founded on the Scripture precept,
" Cut it off and cast it from thee." The tenderness
for human life, noticeable in the tactics and practice
of Byzantine war, is now clearly seen in their code ;
and if this be a test of civilisation, at least as im-
portant as the extended suffrage or a complete
system of baths and wash-houses, we are afraid
that England under George III. must fall behind
Russia under Elizabeth or the Eastern empire under
John Comnenus. But critics remind us of occasional
lapses into terrible and vindictive penalties ; and are
inclined to refer this respect for life to monkish

164 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Mercy in the superstition (right of asylum or leisure for a sinner's
repentance) rather than to the truer motives of
compassion or humanity. In any case, we must
in fairness do justice to a notable improvement in
the Roman Empire on an essential matter, at a time
when the rest of the world was reverting to savagery
and altogether shaking off the restraints of law, while
rendering its sanctions more severe. — The two last
causes contributing to the altered aspect of the
reviving empire I have named (4) the settlement
of the Iconoclastic controversy, and (5) influx of
bullion. Both these may be briefly dismissed ; for

(4) Revival of my conviction of their serious import is unhappily
independent of any detailed proof. In the eighth
century, at least under the two first " Isaurians,"
the State, embodied in a masterful personality, was
all-powerful. The official hierarchy were reduced
to their true status as obedient servants ; justice
was enforced without respect of persons ; and the
rivalry of the Church as an independent order in
the State was curtailed. The views of Leo, in the
preface to his Ecloga, somewhat resemble the
doctrine of Dante's De Monarchid. The heavenly
calling, the theological and religious responsibilities
of the emperor are clearly recognised. He claims
to be above the monkish orders, not because his
aim is secular, but because he is the chief earthly
representative of a theocracy. With the settlement
of the conflict, by Irene for a time and finally by
Theodora, the Church won back much of its
direct and indirect influence. It again became a
political, social, and territorial force, which claimed
independence of control in other realms besides
that of preaching and theology. We may here
repeat, that a unitary State-government, without
counterpoise, must be a necessary if perilous ex-
pedient in time of crisis or dissolution, or among
peoples just learning the rudiments of political com-
promise. But in a highly complex and civilised

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 165

society, in a nation scattered over a wide tract of (4) Revival of

country and exposed to the errors and inadequacy Ecclesiastical

J . . , influence.

of centralised administration, the make-weight of

independent classes on the land, or in commerce,
or in letters, or in spiritual affairs, is essential to
a wholesome equilibrium. Let any unhistoric idealist
learn from the Roman Empire the evils of govern-
ment interference and monopoly, however con-
scientious and well-intentioned. The danger of a
republic is not anarchy or even class-warfare
(though this most commonly follows any loud
announcement of the actual equality), but a con-
servative stagnation, the decay of charity, fellow-
feeling, and lofty aim, a cynical indifference to
official corruption, and a unique preoccupation to
obtain a place under government. But in the most
centralised period of Byzantine rule, the Church
interfered with this unitary conception of the State
and its duties ; set apart a class of men who, living
the " immaterial " life of bare need, could not be
touched by a government of force ; watched over
the orthodoxy of the sovereign and rebuked the
errors of princes. It is a pity that in recovering this
independence and noble frankness, the Church
became entangled in worldly concerns. The en-
dowment of new monastic foundations proved, as
we have seen, the impoverishment of the country,
and implied the disappearance of the yeoman-farmer.
(5) The fact of the economic revival of the empire is (5) Revival of
undoubted ; but it belongs to the specialist to search
for the causes and to trace the development. The
vast treasures left by Theophilus and by Theodora,
or squandered by Michael III. and Constantine IX.,
seem incredible. But the whole period from the
accession of Leo III. to the death of Constantine X.
is marked by a steady recovery, by an accumulation
of bullion in the only kingdom which seemed to
provide security. Bury well points out the fair
distribution of wealth in the capital under the

166 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.B

(5) Revival of Isaurians ; the later increase of riches was to the
^wealth advantage of those already well-to-do. Money seeks

its like, and while the government hoarded in default
of true economic insight, the rich proprietors eluded
taxation (as in any other feudal society) and raised
up, under a nominal autocracy, an oligarchy of
families, which I might term with Lord Beaconsfield
" Venetian," were it not on closer inspection almost
wholly military.

C. THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNING
CLASS UNDER MICHAEL III.

Family of § 15. The marriage of Theophilus has been em-

Theodora the bellished by legend, but it was an event of capital
Armenian. , J , r

importance to the empire. One Armenian family

had a monopoly of office and captaincy for perhaps
thirty-six years, only to be succeeded by another.
We read with surprise the boasts of the ancestry
of Basil or of Theophobus ; to believe myth or the
complacent Herald's College of Constantinople, the
latter was a Sassanid, and on the salutation of the
30,000 Persian troops at Sinope, revived for a
moment a legitimate Persian monarchy (o>? e/c TOVTOV
KOI ra Hepa-wv Kaivl^ea-Oai eOt/ma) ; the former, more
lucky in his fate, traced descent from the rival family
of Arsacids. But the house of Theodora represented
an Armenian origin, and had settled or obtained
a post in Paphlagonia. At this time, the great
Armenian race, preserved (or even reviving) in the
wreck of the Persian empire and maintained in
mountainous fastness against the Caliphate, threw
themselves into the arms of Rome. Henceforth the
fortunes of our empire are inextricably interwoven
with the remoter East ; and fall before the Seljuks
just 200 years later, because the vigilant frontier-
defence of the Armenians had been abandoned,
together with their independence. The noble family
of the Mamigonians turned to the empire, and gave

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 167

up their estates for the more lucrative service of Family of
the Amorian dynasty. Theoph. Contin. (who is ^mSn
under no courtly obligation to flatter a long extinct
house under Constantine VII.) calls Marinus, the
father of Theodora, OVK ao-^/xo? TIS n iStwrt]? Ttjv rv^v.1
Manuel, his brother, was brought from his retreat
by the emperor's express orders to take part in the
Saracen war. He appears still to have held the
titular office of Commander of the Guards, which
his nephew and lieutenant Antigonus really exer-
cised ; and legend .insists that he preserved the life
of Michael, just as his earlier namesake twice saved
Theophilus. This uncle, Manuel, was a capable
general, and is very generally confused with an
earlier Manuel, also an Armenian,2 who had served
the unfortunate Michael I. with fidelity (813) and
had proved the mainstay of the forces and the shield
of Leo, and of Theophilus, at cost of his own life.
Theodora, born at the unknown town of Ebissa in
Paphlagonia, brought her family into still greater
prominence. And herein we notice the curiously

consistent " democracy " of the empire in all its Emperors

., . , ,. , always wed

seven ages as opposed to the aristocratic and ex- subjects.

elusive basis of later European society. Any one
may enter the service of Caesar, even Moabites and
Hagarenes ; any one may become Caesar ; to the
chief place in the mighty fabric the gates, like those
of Dis, stand wide open day and night. We are
not surprised to find the son of a just vanquished
Saracen governor heading an imperial detachment
in Tzimisces' Russian war, and killing one of the
three leaders. The earlier Manuel crosses to and fro
between the service of the Caliph and Theophilus ;
the one dismisses him with tears, the other wel-
comes the traitor (and possibly the renegade), and

1 He held the somewhat indistinct office of dpovyydpios, or, as some
aver, rovp^apx^, cont. Thph. 55.

2 Cont. Thph., £K TWV 'Ap/mevluv Karaydftevos. According to Genesius,
he spread over the East the repute of a valiant and dreaded warrior (93).

168 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Emperors at once gives him the honorary title of magister
(^e*t™ed and the serious duty of domestic of the school.—
But in one particular, Roman tradition, so generous
to capitulation and appeal, maintains a pride alien
to the rest of its institutions. " No foreign matches
for the imperial house," was a principle rarely de-
parted from : " Let the emperors mate with subjects."
A daughter of Theophilus was proposed for a son
of Lewis the Debonnair ; but nothing came of the
betrothal, and Thecla sought some consolation in
transient amours. In the next century, Constan-
tine VII. hands down among the curiously assorted
" arcana imperil " a solemn prohibition of a strange
alliance for royal princesses. He dismissed the
marriage of Emperor Christopher's daughter to a
Bulgarian, with the true remark that he did not
strictly belong to a reigning house. Constantine V.
may well have shocked public feeling by his union
with a Khazar ; and, excepting Justinian V., we
must revert to Gallienus before we meet an alliance
with a barbarian, of deliberate policy. In this age,
and still later in the feudal period, the empire stood
outside that network of powerful families in the
West, which in its close and baffling affinities divided
the fortunes and settled the future of Europe. It
may be true that wars to-day are not fought for
dynastic motives, and the personal policy of Queen
Victoria shows that a clear-sighted sovereign will
postpone family to national interest. But the public
attention centres on this union of first families,
watches intently the course of the love-match or
political alliance, and sees in the common children
of nations, differing in character, creed, and aims,
one of the firmest guarantees for peace and easy
relations. From this wider and indirect influence
the emperors were debarred, partly by circumstance
and the inexorable veto of religious faith ; partly by
that strong public opinion or official rule which so
completely circumscribed their fancied autocracy.

CH. VII

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

169

It is idle to speculate on the effect of a system of Emperors
alliances with distant but reverential princes in the
West. When an empty title could so powerfully
appeal to Clovis in the fifth, to a Venetian doge in
the ninth century, what might not have been the
harmonious union of related Christendom against
Islam ? It is sufficient for us that it was not so,
and that, at least to the end of our period, the
emperors seek wives and sons-in-law in the house-
hold of subjects, refuse their princesses even to
friendly and Christian potentates, and bury in the
convent those who might have been bearers of
civilisation and piety.1

§ 16. This was the family which obtained the chief The Regency,
places under Theophilus : —

Theophobus =
(" Persian
king").

= MlCHAE

L,™

THEO- =

PHILUS,

t84a.

L II., Theoctiste = Marinus. Manuel
9. (irarptKia, (Regent).
Scylitza).

= Helena.

= Theo- BAI
dora. d
(862

IDAS Petronas Sophia. Maria. Irene. =
esar = =
-866). d. of Const. Ba- Arsabir
Myro, boutzic, (an Armen.
Aoy. Spo/j. : magister envoy to
general and (uncle of Rome to
domestic Photius, Pope
(850). patriarch); Nicolas II:
his father (?) Anast.)

- Sergius
(patric.),
brother
of patri-
arch
Photius.

J 1 1
4 daughters.

(?) Thecla
(affianced (?)
to a son of
Lewis I. ).

ALEXIUS
Caes.
(Armen

MICHAEL = Eudocia =
III., : Ingerina.

t867. •

MUSEL LEO VI., &<
ir
an).

= BASI-

LIUSl.

1886,

| | 'Iheodosius |
Anti- ? sent envoy Stephen
gonus, novo- to Lewis I. (patric.)
Colonel a-rpa-nf 839.
of ybs r<Sv
Guards. SimKwi/.

Bardas
(patric.)

Symbatius (Sempad),
Armen. and patric.,
Aoyo0eY»js Spo/u,ov.

Manuel secures his great-nephew's throne by refusing
the title of emperor ; and recalling soldiers and
people in the circus to their allegiance to an infant.
(Had the Armenians introduced greater respect for
these rights than prevailed before ?) But the first

1 It is without surprise that we read of the doubts on the marriage of
Otto II. and Theophano : yet could it be seriously believed, or indeed
boasted, that the empress of the West was a Byzantine changeling?

170 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

The Regency: place in the Council of Regency after Theophilus'
death was held by a eunuch-chamberlain and
patrician (this title is sown broadcast and ceases
to bear any distinctive meaning). Theoctistus (who
may possibly have been connected with Theodora's
mother) had been XoyoOer^ TOV SpojuLov, or Post-
master. We may note that he was envious of a
military renown, and took command in three unsuc-
cessful campaigns in 843, 844, 845. Calumny re-
moves Manuel ; Theoctistus is removed by Bardas'
intrigue and by a scene of unusual violence, in
which even the emperor and his uncle are dis-
obeyed. We read of Damianus, a chamberlain,
probably Tra^oa/co^wywei/o?, and an evil tutor, whose
advancement, pleaded by Michael III. with boyish
zeal, is sternly refused by Theodora, who promotes
according to old Roman tradition by merit and noble
birth, not the servile and base-born. Bardas, as
\oyo6eTW, now wielding uncontrolled influence over
his nephew, reforms his ways and governs the empire
well. Theodora is induced to retire by her ungrate-
ful son ; first insisting on an inventory of the
treasures she left, so soon to be squandered by
him. Damianus slips from favour and is replaced
by Basil, the Macedonian-Slav or Armenian, whose
romantic story dominates this period. Basil is
further promoted. He gave the usual largess with
great splendour (vTrdrevarc). Bardas receives the rank
/coujOOTraAcmy?, and at last is granted that of Caesar,
a title dormant for some time previous to the
brief enjoyment of the dignity by Alexius Musel
Character of under the jealous Theophilus. — The private life of
Michael III. Michael HI. and his personal character need not
concern us ; it were well to remember the words of
the judicious Finlay. He seems to have emulated
some of the earlier Caesars, Nero, Vitellius, Corn-
modus, in his vigorous patronage of the circus and
his intemperance. He forced senators to take part in
his favourite pastime ; stopped the beacons because

CH.VII THE ROMAN EMPIRE 171

they interfered with the serious business of his Character of
life; and seized with delirium, ordered at table the Michael HL
deaths of prominent men. It is notable, first, that
his orders were rarely executed, unless they happened
to agree with the wishes of the courtiers ; second,
that on the morrow the emperor was heartily re-
lieved to find his commands disobeyed and expressed
his gratitude. Yet while each night brought a re-
newal of the coarse pleasures which ruined his life,
he was not wanting in spirit or valour. He would
sometimes recast the edicts and question the arrange-
ments of Bardas, with whom rested the real work
of administration. He constantly appeared at the
head of his troops ; and we must deplore in his
case, as well as in that of Constantine VI., that under
a pious mother's care a youth not without promise
or ability became the most unsuccessful sovereign in
this age. It is difficult to trace the exact analogy,
but the reign of Michael III. with the return of
Orthodoxy shows a sudden moral dissolution of
society, comparable to the reign of Charles II. after
the overthrow of Puritanism. As a rule, the per-
sonal behaviour of the sovereign in his palace had
not been of great importance ; it was little known ;
and few Roman emperors were without striking
official virtues or competence, which hid, or at least
atoned for, private scandals, largely exaggerated by
gossiping biographies. But the genial good-nature
of Michael III. was popular : he mixed freely with
all classes ; visited and supped with the poorest,
stood godfather to his trainers' and jockeys' children ;
and did not even estrange the vulgar by his utter
contempt for the Church in a superstitious age.
Gryllus the Pig was his mock patriarch, whose
unseemly revels, mass in masquerade, and vulgar
indecency towards the empress (if we may credit
an idle legend), were the talk of the capital. The
private unbelief of a sovereign may be without in-
fluence ; but the drunken processions of Michael's

172 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Character of patriarch and his choice companions were notorious.

Michael III. Theophilus, a man of stern and austere character,
had built a hospital where once had been licensed
houses of ill-fame. Society seemed (with the return
of the mediating power of images) to have thrown
off the fetters of restraint. Bardas lived in open
concubinage with a daughter-in-law. Thecla (a
sister rather of Michael III. than of Basil) surpassed
the daughters of Charlemagne in the facility of her
attachments. Basil himself assumed, with deep
astuteness, a levity and an intemperance which were
far from congenial to him ; and he threw off the
disguise of vice when it had served his turn. He
accepts the cast-off mistress of Michael III., Eudocia
Ingerina, and communicated to others his own sus-
picions of the parentage of Leo the Wise. It is not
a little peculiar that the principle of legitimacy should
have taken firm root among the Byzantines at a time
when of two sovereigns one, Leo, was of doubtful
origin ; and the other, his own son, Constantine VII.,
had been born out of lawful wedlock.

§ 17. Bardas Caesar stands out with a Caliph and
a Patriarch (Almamun and Photius) as the most en-

and State. lightened ruler in a dark age. He encourages justice,
law, and letters : he founds a university in Magnaura
and entrusts it to Leo, who had acquired notoriety in
the last reign. He succeeded in supplanting the pious
Ignatius as patriarch by the lay statesman Photius,
great-nephew of Tarasius, a previous occupant of the
see, raised with the same suddenness from the official
first-secretariat (Trpwroaa-riKptJTis) to the archiepiscopal
throne. Photius was the son of a spatharius, and
seems to have succeeded Basil as Chief Equerry or
Master of the Horse. The ruse by which Bardas
secured the acquiescence of the bishops in Ignatius'
deposition has a curious significance, in view of the
known relaxation of discipline, morals, and religious
conviction which followed the settlement of this
Iconoclastic controversy. He secretly promised

Cynical

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 173

the reversion of the vacant see to each several Cynical
bishop, begging him to show a decent reluctance
to obey the imperial summons ; and it must be and state.
confessed that their unanimous acceptance of this
proposal is exceptional in the annals of the Eastern
Church. Another incident of imperial and (as we
must presume) of ecclesiastical policy throws light
upon the sinister aspect of the time ; I mean the
persecution of the Paulicians. Did society compound
for loose morals and the Church for self-seeking by
religious intolerance ? Under a government, largely
dominated by Armenian influence, the frontier-vassals
or sentinels of the East (countenanced since the
days of Constantine V., perhaps in secret sympathy)
were not merely discouraged but turned into rebels.
Actively disloyal, the Paulicians sought refuge with
the principal foe of the empire, the Emir of Melitene ;
for example, Carbeas, whose father suffered the
horrible penalty of crucifixion for his religious views.
The persecution of the Cathari, of the Albigenses,
had some excuse in the ignorant suspicion of the
age and the anti-social character of their views and
practice. But the persecution of the Paulicians must
be classed with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
and the expulsion of Moriscoes from Spain, — a political
error of serious importance.

§ 18. The reign of Michael III. in its jealousies, Murder of
palace-cabals, and murders, betrays features happily
uncommon in Byzantine history. Bardas, in spite
of his capacity and learning, was a man without
principle or moral conviction. He sought to preserve
the influence of his family by retaining the chief
military offices for its members, the chief civil, for
its creatures. Petronas, Theodora's own brother,
flogged by Theophilus with impartial but Oriental
justice, is called from Ephesus, whence he governed
the Buccellarian Theme, to the supreme command
on the Saracen frontier. Did the Caesar fear
to confide forces to a stranger ? Did he contem-

174 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Murder of

Ccesar

Bardas

and of

plate the deposition of Michael III.? He was
assassinated in the emperor's presence ; and the
plot was conceived and executed by the new
favourite, Basil. The populace, usually indifferent
to the removal of its viziers, protected a monk who
publicly reproached Michael with the murder. — For
a short time a genuine civil war formed an almost
welcome contrast to the intrigues of the palace
around the childless emperor. Basil succeeded to
Bardas' vacant dignity, but Symbatius (Sembat), his
partner, won no advantage from the crime. Sembat
leagued with the Obsician governor : they raise
a standard of revolt in the name of the emperor,
plunder and pillage. Against the two is despatched
an Armenian, Maleinus, one of the territorial noble
families, which in another line produces Nicephorus
Phocas and John Tzimisces ; and the revolt is crushed
and its authors cruelly put to death. Michael now
betrays the same jealousy of Basil as he had shown
to his own uncle. With an autocratic caprice and
neglect of form, infrequent in the Eastern empire,
he suddenly invests Basiliskianus (or Basilicinus)
with the purple buskins of a colleague at table,
asking Basil whether he had not still the same pre-
rogative that raised him to the rank of Caesar ?
Reports do not agree as to the status and origin of
the new imperial partner. He is called a rower in
the imperial trireme, but he is also represented as
the brother of Constantine Caballinus, prefect of the
city (who seems to have borne as a genuine name
the odious epithet of the son of Leo III.); he was
presented to the silent and astonished senators the
next day. Basil had reason to fear for his life ; his
murder was attempted in vain. Like Bardas he
had taken a serious view of his responsibilities, as
colleague of a madman ; whom he had alienated by
his virtues and diligence. He was neither a soldier

Mtchaellll. nor a cjviiian^ — merely a palace favourite who de-
veloped a sudden aptitude for affairs, and with all his

CH. vii THE ROMAN EMPIRE 175

timely complaisance to Michael's follies, maintained Murder of
a just view of the duty and dignity becoming an ^rdas
emperor. The death of Michael, one of the most and of
pitiful and tragic episodes in our history, was an Michael III.
unhappy necessity. Both self-defence and the needs
Of the State might urge Basil to lose no time and to
overcome all scruples. The people heard without
interest or commotion of the transference of com-
plete sovereignty to the Caesar, and it is probable that
the murder was not more public than the circum-
stance of Emperor Paul's assassination in 1801. If
we reproach the Byzantine people at large with a
callous disloyalty and indifference, we must re-
member the secrecy of the imperial tradition, the
mystery of the palace, the discreetness of those
permanent attendants and officials, to whom any
change of sovereign was of slight moment. No
telegraph then made known to a horrified society
the minute details, as in the murder of Alexander and
Draga of Servia, or the King and Crown-prince of
Portugal. With all our boasted advance in humanity
the nineteenth century will remain pre-eminently the
Age of Regicide ; singular irony, when we remember
that kings were invited to lay down a burdensome
prerogative that they might divert to others the
invidia of bad government, and becoming sacrosanct
reign secure but superfluous in the hearts of their
people.

§ 19. Thus fell the direct dynasty of Amorium ; Accession of
for it is more than probable that Leo the Wise ^^^
continues the obscure lineage. It had arisen under Armenian
very similar circumstances ; an old friend and influenc^
colleague suspected and imprisoned; a sudden
massacre in the grey dawn; and a hasty salutation.
Michael II. was low-born, ignorant, and unorthodox;
but his family soon acquired the weakness and the
culture of a long-established family. Theophilus
was magnificent without losing simplicity in personal
life and character; he had known the dangers and

176 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Accession of vicissitudes of a private station. Michael III. is the

stTen/thensr true ^P6 of the y°ung heir born in the purple. He
Armenian is no nonentity like Honorius ; but his upbringing
influence. has spoilt him, and he lacks the first requisite of a
Roman emperor, application to business, personal
contact with affairs. His reign bears a curious
resemblance to that of Commodus ; viziers, forced
into rivalry with the emperor, do the hard work ;
and he enjoys high office as a means to gratify the
not unmanly and still regal tastes of a sportsman.
When Xiphilin was transcribing Dio Cassius and his
contemporary account of Rome under the son of
Aurelius, he could not fail to detect the likeness.
During this nominal autocracy, the machine of
government went on of its own secular momentum.
The regents were able and considerate, but the
treasury was exhausted by Michael's constant ex-
travagance. This, indeed, in the eyes of his subjects,
was his chief demerit. Yet may we ask, without
shocking the economist, whether a reckless profusion
does not circulate the precious metals more pro-
fitably than the bullionist policy which hoards the
whole surplus capital of the State ? Certainly at no
time did the empire more ostentatiously display its
marvellous capacity for recuperation. Basil found
an almost empty treasury ; but after twenty years he
bequeathed to a dubious and suspected heir the
same wealth and opportunity of enjoyment that
Theodora had transmitted to Michael on retiring
from the regency. — The Amorians had allied with an
Armenian family as yet without permanent surname.1
And the change of dynasty in 867, after so many
sanguinary intrigues, only gave greater power to the
Armenian interest. The conspirators who removed

1 We may indeed trace the beginnings of this new practice ; under
Leo VI. a valiant general is styled 6 rou$w/ca; Constantine VII. writes
(de Adm.} explicitly of a certain general of the Peloponnesian Theme, 08 rb
eiriK\ty 6 r&v Rpoiewiuv, — where later custom treats both Phocas and
Bryennius as family names. Is not even Gibbon misled as to the meaning
of the term Monomachus ?

CH.VII THE ROMAN EMPIRE 177

Bardas, the regicides who shed the blood of their Accession of
sovereign, are undeniably Armenian. The precise
origin of Basil the " Arsacid," the Slav, the Mace-
donian, the Armenian, — we shall never know ; nor is influence.
the birth of this bold but isolated figure a serious
matter. But he depended on Armenian support,
and received a crown with gratitude from an Ar-
menian sovereign ! There is something strange and
even startling in the Byzantine empire at this time.
There is a fixed social order enjoying a security of
life and property unknown elsewhere ; a bureaucratic
service still imbued with the administrative methods
and traditions of the age of Constantine ; a Church
representing Hellenic culture and abstention under
the cover of Christian theology and monasticism ;
a course of justice, at least for the ordinary
man, incomparably more equitable than any that
prevailed till centuries later in other countries ; an
army efficient and devoted, whose failures were
due rather to bad leadership than want of spirit or
training ; and, at the apex, a strange foreign family,
whether of Michael the Amorian or Basil the
" Arsacid," not educated either in the church or the
civil service, alien to the doctrine and letters of this
" Roman " society, and yet able to seize at will by
two obscure murders the most dazzling prize that
earth could offer to human ambition.

VOL. II. M

CHAPTER VIII

Transfer of
throne to the
1 Arsatid,1
867, sup-
ported by
official class.

THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNMENT UNDER
BASIL I., LEO VI., AND ALEXANDER (867-912)

§ 1. A PERIOD of some forty-five years is covered
by the reigns of Basil and his two sons. We reserve
the indecisive space of the regency which governed
under the nominal rule of Constantine for the next
section, before the appearance of Romanus I. and the
inauguration of a new family. These are years of
quiet and steady recovery, vigilant and systematic
business at home and abroad, relapsing in the latter
half into that short-sighted conservatism and enjoy-
ment of resources, which seems to follow every
restoration of central control in Byzantine history.
There are plots, conspiracies, and intrigues ; but the
period cannot be termed one of anxiety or unrest.
No general attempt was made or contemplated to
change the family or the form of government ; and
we may well wonder if these emperors regarded
such episodes as serious matters, so striking is the
leniency shown to traitors and would-be regicides,
with one remarkable exception of barbarous cruelty,
which shall be noted in due course. In spite of the
historical resemblance, Basil was no peasant Maxi-
min (235), who merely excelled in bodily strength and
killed a benefactor. It is true that his records are
composed by those who wrote under his grandson's
partial eye ; but it is clear that his " usurpation " was
popular and his government well supported by the
official class, whose quiet but obstinate opposition
had proved disastrous to more reigns than one. It
seems, at the outset, abundantly clear that the
mysterious Senate had moved in the matter of the

178

CH. viii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 179

transfer of the throne. Like their ancient prototype, Transfer of
without executive power, perhaps without corporate f^mcS^
privilege, the /BovXrj, or^/cA^ro?, or yepova-la exercised a 867, tup-
certain but indefinable control. It was in the pre- ported by
sence of this body of high officials that Theodora
and Basil opened the treasury : the one at the close
of her regency, to display its wealth ; the other,
at the first moment of his monarchy, to show its
emptiness. Basil was sufficiently tactful and astute
to secure their support from the first ; and the
abolition of a supposed privilege of legislation was
certainly not the act of an absolute or capricious
Caesar, who despised a rival and insulted this last
remnant of the Dyarchy. The natural and legiti-
mate successor of an incapable prince, he was wel-
comed by clergy and civilians alike ; and owing to
some admirable secret of the Byzantine military
system, no distant prefect or general hastened to
the capital, like Galba or Vespasian or Constantine,
to claim the vacant place by force. It is a moot
question whether the general welfare of the realm
suffered or gained by this exchange, when palace-
intrigue replaced the military " pronunciamento."
Public opinion was less shocked, no doubt ; the
greatest secrecy prevailed as to the interior of the
palace, the veritable " Forbidden City" of the Byzan-
tines. The technical forms were carefully preserved ;
even Basilicinus, the nominee of a debauch, was
presented to the silent ranks of senators by the now
sober Michael ; and Basil, solemnly inaugurated,
well tested by a year's association, succeeded with-
out protest, receiving his crown over again from
the altar, through the patriarch's hands, as a sacred
trust from God.

§ 2. It would be difficult and perhaps unfair to Domestic

estimate the position of this sovereign without in- ™f°r™s an(f

- , A1_ • • -L i - t i i • • foreign policy

quiring into the administration which made his reign Of Basil.

acceptable and his family popular. He had good
ability, a natural desire for the happiness of his

180 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Domestic subjects (whose lot he had known and tested in his
/brelT ™L youthful poverty), and he was well served. Nature
'of Basil. and willing human effort combined to help him in
his task. First and foremost came the reform of
finance and the replenishing of the treasury; un-
worthy pensions were halved, not entirely abolished ;
even the needs of the State under an absolute prince
recognised something like " vested interests." The
expenses of the Court were curtailed; imposts were
diminished and perhaps more carefully distributed ;
the cost of government was simplified ; proposals to
increase the scale of taxation were declined, though
warmly recommended by the official class; and (best
of all) the steady and equitable administration of
the law was secured by payment of a fixed and
regular salary to the justices. This was one of the
chief boasts of the later empire, that amid the storms
of a turbulent age and the rapid shipwreck of neigh-
bouring powers, this ideal at least of ia-ovo/mla had
been preserved; the law-books might be forgotten,
but the traditions of Roman equity remained in-
violate. The poor suitors, forced under any cen-
tralised government to resort to the capital, were
maintained during their sojourn at the State expense ;
and it would be interesting to know how long this
unique and thoughtful provision lasted. Basil re-
vived the old practice of sitting as assessor or inte-
rested auditor in the Courts, to give dignity to the
judges as well as to guide their decisions. He sat
in Chalce, having rebuilt a judgment-hall in the vesti-
bule of the palace ; and in the Treasury (TO yevucov)
he was a constant attendant in the most important
branch of Byzantine administration — the assessment,
apportionment, and collection of the revenue, and
chiefly of the land-tax. Basil, or his wise coun-
sellors (and an absolute monarch who dares employ
and listen to such deserves the credit for their
sagacity), took care to have these cadastral assess-
ments written up clearly and in full, so that every

CH..VJII THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 181

one might read. He encouraged appeal, protest, Domestic
and grievance against the exactors, — those necessary
evils in a State which employs the vexatious method
of direct taxation ; and when he found no cases of
complaint he suspected fraud or intimidation, and
wept tears of joy on discovering through trusty spies
that there really was no one to complain. The law
was once more codified; and this bold and syste-
matic task, bringing an incoherent mass to order, and
reacting against the brief and hated Iconoclastic
redaction, was completed, and should properly be
noticed, under the reign of Leo VI. The disorganisa-
tion of the army during Michael's sole reign has no
doubt been exaggerated ; but Basil introduced a
new element of strength, by distributing mature
soldiers among the younger recruits and by making
the duties of military service somewhat more con-
tinuous. He secured the submission of the Slavs,
already " completely seized " of the greater part of the
Balkan peninsula ; and exercising a rare discretion
and reversing the precedent of Theophilus, who
extinguished the autonomy of Cherson, he allowed
these scattered tribes to choose their own rulers
(while in the last reign such places had been, it was
said, sold to the highest bidder). The chief warlike
events of Basil are found in the constant and in-
decisive border-forays in the East, on the Cilician
frontier ; in the regrettable overthrow of the Pauli-
cians under Chrysochir at Tephrice ; in the naval
expeditions, which with varying success protected
the Roman shores from the Saracen corsairs ; and
in the kaleidoscopic changes in the map, the policy,
and the fortunes of Southern Italy. It is on the
Eastern limit that the chief interest lies, where the
chief obscurity conceals. We are informed signifi-
cantly enough that on the fall of Tephrice, the
resolute Protestant citadel of the saints, Tarsus and
its emir revived and raided the empire's land ; that
private enterprise, not imperial policy, founded two

182 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Domestic new themes — Lycandus, where Melias the Armenian

reforms and acted as some Anglo-Saxon pioneer of a lethargic

foreign policy

of Basil central government ; Mesopotamia, where three

brothers, nobles of Armenian descent, surrendered
(without doubt to resume in fee) their estates to the
emperor. Greater Armenia, recruiting -ground for
the soundest stock and the best warriors, was divided
between several great princes, and perhaps the chief
bore the honourable but unmeaning title of Curo-
palat. Yet we cannot doubt that the Eastern frontier
suffered severely ; large tracts were depeopled either
by civil war, which made a desert of the interior and
compelled the vanquished to join the Saracens, or
by those fruitless expeditions in Melitene or Cilicia,
where Byzantine tradition seemed to insist that the
sovereign shall appear at the head of his troops.
His family: § 3. The family and ministers of Basil consisted of
rmlorafi0n °^ *our daughters wh°» according to the custom of the
restraint. Court and the time, followed the religious life ; and
four sons — Constantine, by his first marriage, who pre-
deceased him, and appeared (as he believed) in the spirit
by the clever jugglery of the Santabarene ; Leo, who
continued this dynasty, born of uncertain origin in
September 866 ; Alexander, who reigned for a brief
period of thirteen months, 911-912 ; and Stephanus,
born in 870, raised at the age of sixteen to the
patriarchal throne, dying in seven years of the
severity of his ascetic practice, and providing a pre-
cedent for the elevation of the young Theophylact
by his father Lecapenus in the next century. It is
said that Basil had reason to complain of Ingerina's
conduct, and that Thecla (whom Theophilus had
crowned and Michael her brother indulged) con-
tinued her vagaries into the more decent, or at least
more pious, atmosphere of the new reign. Basil's
clemency imposed upon Nicetas, the empress's cicisbeo,
and on Neatocomites, Thecla's paramour, the some-
what peculiar penalty of the monastic life : the
former was permitted under Leo to become aeconomus

CH. vni THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 183

of Saint Sophia. It can scarcely be denied that a. Secular and
certain secular air invaded the high places of the
Church, though not to the same extent as in Rome
in the following century. Princes of the blood-
royal take orders ; Ignatius is the son of Michael
Rhangabus (811—813) and the grandson of the
"Arabian" Nicephorus ; Gregory, the son of Leo
the Armenian, is Bishop of Ephesus ; Stephen and
Theophylact are the brother and the son of a
reigning emperor. But the episcopate was never
a mere appanage for the cadets of some powerful
family ; and whereas in the West the holder
secularised the office, as John XII. in the tenth,
and Benedict IX. in the eleventh century, in the
East the mitre (powerless only over the son of Leca-
penus) insensibly transformed its wearer into a
spiritual person. Photius himself is a statesman
and an intriguer, as well as a vindictive partisan ;
but he brought to the throne deep learning and
capacity for practical business, not often seen in a
patriarch. He compassed his restoration under
Basil by a pamphlet, possibly ironical, in which he
displayed the Arsacid descent of the emperor. His
brother-in-law, Leo Kara/caXwi/, is captain of the
guard ; he himself had been an ambassador to
the caliph ; and his friend, Theodore the Santa-
barene (who played the imposture on the super-
stitious Basil), was an accomplished hypocrite,
ordained to the see of Patras: which the witty
Byzantines called ' A(j)avro7ro\i9, the courtly bishop
being both an intruder and an absentee. We cannot
discern the motive for the plot of Photius and
Santabaren against Leo after Constantine's early
death, grudgingly acknowledged as sole heir. It
was a curious and obscure political manoeuvre, con-
spicuously imprudent and unsuccessful. The last
days of Basil were tormented by suspicion and
perhaps by remorse ; he grew moody and irritable ;
a servant who saved his life while hunting was

184 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Secular and
Patriarchs

Byzantine
public service

conditions of
nationality.

Rise of the

punished with death for baring his sword before
^e emPeror> and his last words warned his suc-
cessor against the priestly machinations which had
embittered the closing years of his life. At this
critical moment he complained, like Justin II., of
the helplessness of an emperor among servants
banded together to deceive him.

§ 4. The officials, ministers, and generals in the
service of the State under Basil prove the same
complete superiority to national spirit or exclusive-
ness, which we have so often remarked. Andrew,
Governor of the Hellespont, is a Scythian of the
West (in contrast to the Tauroscyths or Rus-
sians). He succeeds in one of the many expeditions
against Tarsus ; is superseded in a palace-cabal by
Stypiotes, a sort of later Cleon ; but is again re-
placed and becomes Commander-in-chief. The
period is chiefly worthy of notice for the emer-
gence of those great families, mostly of Asiatic or
Armenian origin, with whom arms became a here-
ditary profession, the defence, as distinct from the
administration, of the State, a peculiar duty and
privilege.1 The great Admiral Nicetas was an effec-
tive if stern disciplinarian (not to be confounded with
the chamberlain who found favour with Ingerina,
nor with a courtier who assisted the return of Photius,
nor again with a later confidante of Leo VI.). An
indolent general in Italy, Stephen Maxentius, of
the untrustworthy race of Cappadocia, gives way to
Nicephorus Phocas, grandfather of the emperor a
century later. Phocas is sent against the Saracens
in 886, and against the Bulgarians ; he becomes

i We read now of the first family of Ducas, which was almost blotted
out in the next century, in a treasonable attempt to seize the throne.
Andronicus and his son Constantine will be noticed in connection with
the favourite Samonas ; and we here only call attention to the gradual
formation of the surname. In Basil's life (Bonn, 369) it is rbv IK TOV
Aowcds ; also 'AvSpbviKos 6 AOVKOS vlbs — very soon lapsing into the brief
Aowtcis. Dindorff in Zonaras gives dovicbs simply as if a title. Thph.
Cont. 165, 6 TOV 'Apyvpov K, o TOV Aowcdj, and of Theodotus, 6 /card TOV

CH. vni THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 185

So pea-Twos ra)v or-^o\u)vf or Commander-in-chief, on the Rise of the
demise of the " Scythian " Andrew ; he refuses to
become the nominal husband of the emperor's mis-
tress, Zoe I. ; and being removed to comparative exile
as Governor of Lydia, achieves a brilliant victory over
the Saracens, and obtains honourable mention in the
" Tactic " of Leo, for a mastery of strategic art. Leo
Kara/caAo)!/ succeeds to his European command,
coupled with a palace - dignitary, Theodosius the
TrpwToflea-Ttdpios ; both are defeated with terrible loss
by Symeon, throughout this reign of ease a per-
petual thorn and menace, — Angyrines, the Armenian,
being killed with his troop ; and his squire Melias
finding renown (as we saw) by the establishment of
the Theme Lycandus, peopled with a colony of his
fellow-countrymen. Alexius, an Armenian (so Con-
stantine VII. tells us), also recovered Cyprus for the
empire for seven years, after which it was again
lost to the Saracens. It cannot be asserted that
excessive control by the State had as yet extinguished
private enterprise. Curticius, another Armenian, falls
in the Bulgarian war in 889. Nicetas Sclerus is sent
in the same year as envoy to obtain the dangerous
aid of the Hungarians against the determined Symeon ;
and henceforward the perplexing fewness and simi-
larity of Christian names begins to be made clear by
the adoption of the surname, which serves a double
purpose ; the historian is enabled to trace the for-
tunes of families i and the continuity of their tradi-
tion, no longer puzzled by the sudden emergence of
some isolated and unique figure, without father, with-
out mother. We are thus enabled to judge the

1 Another link is given by Theophylact Abastact (or the Unbearable ?),
who saved the Emperor Basil's life in war, and is given as the father of
Lecapenus, who forty years later shared the purple with his " grandson,"
Constantine. In this time, too, we hear of another surname of renown ;
Eustathius Argyrus is the son of a general under Michael III. at Teph-
rice, is the representative of a Charsian house in Cappadocia, and be-
comes the ancestor of Romanus III. (1028-1034), first husband of Zoe
(C. vii. 374).

186 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Perils of

divided

command.

Abortive
conspiracies
against Basil\
and his son
(870-910).

effect of the Iconoclastic revival, which enabled titles,
estates, and a sense of family honour to be transmitted
with a security infrequent if indeed ever found in
Oriental monarchies. The most painful episode in
Basil's reign is the treacherous conduct of a Leo
during an Italian campaign, as the colleague of
Procopius, the -Trpwro^ea-r tdpios. This practice of
joining an official of the palace with a professional
soldier has been noticed before ; and after all, is no
novelty to the historian who remembers the astonishing
success of Narses under Justinian. Not yet had the
military class claimed supremacy or even independ-
ence of the civilian's administration ; but we may trace
in this a half-conscious suspicion of a sole command.
At any rate, the usual quarrel arose between the two ;
Leo deserts Procopius, leaves him to perish, him-
self obtains a victory and returns to claim the
credit. On discovery of his crime, heinous and
without hope of forgiveness in the military code of
honour, Leo was punished by the loss of an eye and
his right hand (the same punishment which excited
civilised people of late against the Moorish Sultan).
Perhaps the government scarcely ventured to avenge
the murder of a palace functionary by the execution of
a successful captain ; but other proofs are not wanting
of the exceptional clemency and humane prejudices
of Byzantine society at this time. Those who see
in the Greek chronicles nothing but hideous penalties,
parricide, and hypocrisy, should remember the gradual
improvement in our own prison system and our
penal code, and should compare the treatment of
Lord Balmerino and Admiral Byng in the eighteenth
century.

§ 5. We are brought, then, to the conspiracies and
plots which disturbed the rest of Basil and Leo
without rendering them cruel or vindictive. Ro-
manus Curcuas, captain of the 'I/cat/arot, was the
father of a general sometime compared to Belisarius,
and was the great - grandfather of an illustrious

CH.VIII THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 187

emperor, Zimisces (1976). Sixty-six senators were Abortive
implicated in an obscure plot, of which Curcuas was consPir
the author. He is deprived of sight, but his accom- and his son
plices are only banished and their estates confiscated. ($70-910').
It is permissible to see in this plot the discontent of
a rich official class who had lost the chance of gain
by the new methods adopted to secure their integrity.
The conspiracy of Santabaren against the young prince
Leo was punished on Leo's accession by the loss of
sight; but it is remarked that the tender-hearted
emperor repented of this sentence, recalled his old
enemy to the capital, and settled a pension on him,
charged on Church-revenues ; this he enjoyed with
the noted longevity of State pensioners, and died in
the reign of Constantine VII. at an advanced age.
The mild control of Leo gave the inmates of his
household opportunity to show their disloyalty.
Tzaoutzes Stylianus was once the governor of the
three imperial princes under Basil. He had allowed
his daughter Zoe to become the mistress of Leo,
afterwards raised for brief space to the lawful rank of
empress, and fit (if legend is to be believed) to asso-
ciate with the Marchioness of Brinvilliers. Loaded
with favours, dignities, and new-created titles, Sty-
lianus conspired against Leo when Absent from the
capital in a villa of pleasure on the Bosporus. His
son, Tautzes, captain of the guard, is in the plot,
together with Basil Tny/c-ny? (the Harper ?). Zoe dis-
covers and thwarts the unnatural and foolish in-
trigue, and sends back the emperor out of harm's
way to the palace. Leo contents himself with with-
drawing the commission of Stylianus' son, and confer-
ring the important post on Pardus, son of Nicolas,
commander of the Foreign Legion ; but it would
appear that the new colonel was himself a grandson
of Stylian ! Basil, his brother, actually attempted to
make himself emperor, and laid the foundations of
the remarkable influence of Samonas the Saracen by
taking him into his confidence. Samonas told Leo of

188 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Abortive
conspiracies
against Basil
and his son
(870-910).

Leo VI.

under Stylian

and

Samonas:

remarkable

Saracen

favourite.

the enterprise ; and the kindly monarch, convinced of
his guilt, burnt off his hair, and exiled him to Greece.
In 902 occurred an attack on Leo during a solemn
procession which bears a closer likeness to the modern
dangers of royalty. A candelabrum saved the
emperor's life, but he was severely wounded in the
head, and the nameless and perhaps insane assassin
underwent a terrible and Chinese punishment ; he was
tortured in vain to reveal his accomplices, and after
he had lost hands and feet he was burnt alive.

§ 6. The personal reign of Leo is the history of a
kind and ease-loving sovereign, but little acquainted
with affairs, and completely under the influence of
his wives and attendants. We have noticed the long
predominance of Stylian, hurried through the inferior
ranks of the hierarchy to the most exalted posts,
master of the offices, logothete or grand treasurer,
and " parent of the Emperor," ^aariXeo-ndrcDp — a title
invented for the occasion by the pedantic emperor.
But if the Tzaoutzes dominated over Leo, he was
himself the victim of his own servants, who in every
despotic State enjoy the chief influence. The greed
of Musicus (Mousegh) and Stauracius precipitated the
Bulgarian war by re-establishing for their private
benefit a monopoly in the commerce. And after
Zoe's death (" unhappy daughter of Babylon," as
some one wrote on her coffin), Stylian owed his final
and irrevocable disgrace to the personal discovery of
the emperor ; who, on a visit to the logothete's house,
detected Stauracius armed with a sheaf of corrupt re-
quests and offers. Leo, left in unaccustomed and
miserable loneliness, looked round for some one to be
his master. Samonas the Saracen succeeded to the
Tzaoutzes as the director of the sovereign's conscience
and policy. It is doubtful if his romantic and un-
scrupulous career can find a parallel in the annals of
court favourites. Such influences may at times be
paramount in a State centralised in the cabinets of
the palace (like Spain after Philip II.), and inured by

CH. vm THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 189

native sloth or superstition to traditions of loyalty Leo VI.
and passive obedience : Farinelli, an Italian soprano,
exercised unbounded but honourable power over the Samonas:
melancholy Philip V. The chamberlains of Constan- remarkable
tius II. are notorious in the pages of Ammianus. favourite.
Eunuchs had governed the empire under Irene, and
would again appear as the chief rulers in the reign of
the aged Theodora (1054-1056), gathering in a court,
as Constantine VII. wittily says, "thick as flies over
a sheepfold." But in the annals of Rome there is
no precise parallel to Samonas the Hagaren favourite.
It is very doubtful if he formally renounced his reli-
gion : it is certain that he built monasteries at his
own expense without convincing any one of the sin-
cerity of his conversion, and that he boldly counselled
his Moslem father during a visit not to accept the
emperor's offer or give up Islam. He made no
secret of his purpose to return ultimately to the
dominions of the infidel laden with Christian spoils.
Once, wearied by a tedious spell of power, he fled to
Asia, and was with difficulty prevailed on to return
by the emperor, grieved rather than indignant. Yet
this influence over a weak monarch of an unbelieving
eunuch was not resented by Byzantine society, cer-
tainly not at that time servile or hopelessly corrupt.
Basil, a poor hermit, alone among the Romans, had
the courage to taunt him with his race and creed, what-
ever the dignities by which despotism might attempt
to conceal them. For fifteen years (c. 895—910), he
was the abjectly trusted adviser and chamberlain.
A singular episode is found in the adventures of the
earliest Ducas in Byzantine history. Samonas had
taken flight, and Constantine Ducas had been sent to
bring him back. He overtook him at Cabala, near
Iconium, and returned with him. Leo, anxious that
his favourite should be cleared of any treasonable
charge, prompted Constantine on oath to explain
the sudden journey of Samonas as the result of a
religious vow ; he was on a pilgrimage to a shrine in

190 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Leo VI.

under stylian

Samonas:
remarkable

favourite.

Cappadocia. Losing his presence of mind before
^e stern demands of the court of inquiry, Constan-
tine let slip the truth, that the real destination was
Melitene, where resided the chief Moslem foe of
*^e empire- After a nominal captivity of a few
months, Leo restored the chamberlain to favour, and
made him godfather to the young Constantine, the
long-expected heir.1 The Saracen cherished hatred
against the man who had betrayed him. His father,
Andronicus Ducas, not long afterwards was invested
by Leo, who knew how to choose his generals, if not
his favourites, with a joint command against the
Saracens. Himerius, or Homerius, logothete of the
imperial port, was his colleague. The chamberlain
sends secretly, warning Andronicus that the appoint-
ment was a ruse to cover his arrest ; and urging
instant flight to a place of safety. Andronicus believes
the lie, and takes refuge with the caliph. The emperor,
unable to understand the motive of this treachery,
sends a message with a secret missive concealed in a
candle begging him to return. Samonas tampers
with the bearer, and has it delivered to the vizier ; and
the caliph, believing him to be a traitor to one sove-
reign and perhaps to both, puts the unhappy general
to death. The last exploit of this alien satellite was
the composition, in collaboration with other worthies
of the palace, of a virulent and anonymous satire on the
emperor himself. He had been piqued by the favour
shown to a servant of his own by the imperial pair
(910). Leo, kindly himself, and sensitive to ridicule,
suffered greatly from this poisonous attack, and not
less when he discovered the author. But with culp-
able leniency he contented himself with depriving him
of office, confiscation, and imprisonment ; the servant
who had been the cause of the rupture took Samonas'

1 Son of his fourth wife, Zoe II. Carbonopsina, a great-niece of Theo-
phanes, historian and confessor, married and crowned after the birth of an
heir. She succeeded the short-lived Eudocia the Phrygian in the affec-
tions of the uxorious Leo.

CH. vm THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 191

vacant place. Such is the whole remarkable story Leo VI.
in brief outline— a story without parallel in the later ^r Stylian
empire. No favourite exercised so long and so Samonas.
inexplicable a sway over an emperor.

§ 7. The chief argument against despotism is not Wastefulease
its severity but its laxity and waywardness. Absolute *£
rulers seldom resemble Ivan the Terrible in cruelty,
Peter or Napoleon in vigilant supervision. The
influences which sway the mind of a lover of ease
are anonymous and irresponsible. The customary
complaint of the people blames not the interference
but the indifference of a ruler. We hear nothing of
popular grievance or discontent under Leo the Wise,
but it is easy to see that effective personal control is
a thing of the past, that the nominal master has no
will of his own and little voice in his own household.
Where he takes the trouble to interfere, good-nature
and not policy seems to direct his judgment. He
vastly increased the cost and sumptuous outlay of
the palace ; his son remarks on the magnificence of
the royal galley.

Basil's simple ways were out of date in a capital
bent on enjoyment. To Finlay, Leo "typifies the
idle spirit of conservatism " ; and he remarks, with
some show of truth, that under him the "last
traces of the Roman constitution were suppressed."
Yet we do not chronicle in this reign the ll extinction
of the Roman Empire and the consolidation of Byzan-
tine despotism." Allowing for the difference of age,
society, and religious belief, Leo is but the echo of
Claudius and the prototype of James I., as Basil of
Maximin. He may have technically abolished the
decrees of the Senate and put an end to independent
municipal life. But it is hard to believe that any
deliberate attack was made, under a prince so kindly
and in a society so contented with its peculiar institu-
tions, upon any genuine survival of republican or at
least responsible government. It is easy to see that
the spirit of the age was comfortably fatalistic, and

192 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Wasteful ease quite willing to concede to the ruler the same arbi-
trary Power wnich it recognised in God, who made
the harvest plentiful without man's labour. Con-
Disregardof stantine VII., also a learned and an industrious man,
p^epro-and admits the disorder which crept into the services
motion. under his father. The rules of promotion, hitherto
inexorable for the lower posts up to the permanent
secretariats, were disregarded. A certain " Sancho
Panza" was appointed judge-admiral (admin, imp.,
§ 50), and the reports or verdicts of this illiterate man
were dictated by his deputy ; as a clerk prompts
the decisions of the country bench, or as the sublime
detachment of the nominal ministers under the
Japanese Shogunate was brought down to earthly
business by the whispers of assiduous valets. It is
also clear that the careful supervision exercised over
the collectors of revenue was relaxed ; and that local
exaction became again an abuse without ready re-
dress. But it is difficult to see any great degree of
corruptness in the purchase of court office ; for
example, a certain cleric, Ctenas, desired to become a
protospathaire, and for the title and a yearly salary of one
pound of gold offered forty. The court had become
an insurance office, returning a very poor terminable
annuity on a large outlay ; or, as has been suggested,
the State was groping its way towards the institution
of a National Debt. This proposed step outside the
routine of caste was unwelcome to the emperor, who
seems to have found time for such minutiae by neglect
of weightier matters. But when the ambitious clerk
raised his offer to sixty Ibs., the imperial scruples
disappeared and the patent or commission was issued ;
we may pardon the quiet humour of Constantine who
tells the story and points out that Ctenas only lived
two years to enjoy his place and salary. Round
Leo collected an atmosphere of eulogy and incense ;
to Genesius, the earliest historian of the post-icono-
clastic emperors, moderate in his praises of Basil, he
is 7rdv(ro(j)o$ and aeipwia^ros ai/a£, 7repiu>w/uLo<? and

CH.VIII THE ROMAN EMPIRE (867-912) 193

7ravevK\erj$ and aol8ifj.o$ /3a<n\evs. He was undoubtedly Disregard of
popular ; and the sole acts of his reign which can be Precedent and

ditp i)i* O—

called arbitrary are connected with his frequent motion.
nuptials and the rebukes of the patriarchs. His own
irregular life did not prevent him from a moral
interest in the meanest of his subjects. Like Theo-
dora in the sixth, like Theophilus in his own century,
he pulls down evil houses of resort and builds
in their place an asylum for aged pensioners
(ytlpoKOfJieiov). Thph. Cont. 370 (Bonn).

§ 8. With the joint salutation of " long life to Defects and
Alexander and Constantine," we shall enter upon merits Of*he
a new period ; and I cannot do better than borrow con-
from Finlay a few sentences in which this sympa- seryatism
thetic historian contrives (rather by intuition than ^
use of slender material) to seize the fugitive charac-
teristics of an era of transition : — " Leo VI. had under-
mined the Byzantine system of administration which
Leo III. had (re)modelled on the traditions of imperial
Rome. He had used his absolute power to confer
offices of the highest trust on court favourites notori-
ously incapable of performing the duties entrusted
to them. The systematic rules of promotion in the
service of the government ; the administrative usages
which were consecrated into laws ; the professional
education which had preserved the science of govern-
ment from degenerating with the literature and
language of the empire, — were for the first time
habitually neglected and violated. The administra-
tion and the court were confounded in the same
mass ; and an emperor called the Philosopher is
characterised in history for having reduced the
Eastern empire to the degraded rate of an Oriental
and arbitrary despotism. ... It is difficult in the
period now before us to select facts that convey a
correct impression of the condition, both of the
government and the people. The calamities and
crimes we are compelled to mention, tend to create
an opinion that the government was worse, and the

VOL. II. N

194 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. B

Defects and
merits of the
new pacific
Con-
servatism
(Finlay).

condition of the inhabitants of the empire more
miserable, than was really the case. The ravages of
war and the incursions of pirates wasted only a
small portion of the Byzantine territory ; and ample
time was afforded by the long intervals of tran-
quillity to repair the depopulation and desolation
caused by foreign enemies. The central government
still retained institutions that enabled it to encounter
many political storms that ruined neighbouring
nations. Yet the weakness of the administration,
the vices of the court and the corruptions of the
people during the reigns of Constantine Porphyro-
genitus and his father-in-law Romanus I., seemed to
indicate a rapid decay in the strength of the empire ;
and they form a heterogeneous combination with the
institutions which still guaranteed security for life and
property to an extent unknown in every other portion
of the world, whether under Christian or Moham-
medan sway. The merits and defects of the Byzan-
tine government are not found in combination in
any other portion of history, until we approach
modern times."

CHAPTER IX

THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNMENT DURING
THE TENTH CENTURY: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE
REGENCY AND CONFLICT OF THE CIVIL AND
MILITARY FACTIONS : RISE OF THE FEUDAL
FAMILIES

A. DircAS AND PHOCAS TO LECAPENUS (912-920)

§ 1. IT would be a serious error to judge of the The Pate-
general state of the empire in the light of the dis- %™£?ry
tressing cabals and personal rivalries which solely Alexander.
engage the attention of authors and students in the
space of thirty-three years. It will be necessary for
our especial purpose to examine the events which
led to the singular spectacle of the tenth century, the
regency ; — however tedious and unprofitable these
circumstances may appear. For underneath an
unedifying display of selfishness and hypocrisy
or violence, there are real principles at stake, and
the chief agents are not merely fighting each for his
own hand. Each great party in the State service
and each unscrupulous competitor represent a certain
ideal of government ; and these are defensible not
only by arms or conspiracy but by argument and
sound reasoning. Alexander had long enjoyed the
empty title of emperor ; he exercised its function
after long waiting for a year and a month. Dissolute
and slothful at public business, he had vigour only
for hunting and tennis ; and the question arose (to
the populace of the capital a long familiar inquiry),
" Who was to be the emperor's master ? " The reign
of Alexander bears some points of resemblance to the
Orleans regency in the youth of Louis XV. A certain

195

196 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

The Palace-
Ministry
under
Alexander.

The

Bulgarian
peril and the
Council of
Regents.

cleric, who reminds us of Abb£ Dubois, became the
secret confidant ; and two Slavonians, Gabrielopulus
and Basilitza, were chief ministers, under the in-
variable title of patrician. It was even whispered
that a design was on foot to castrate Constantine
VII., to leave Basilitza heir to the throne. Sur-
rounded by a crew of soothsayers and charlatans,
Alexander preserved a complete detachment from
public affairs. He chased Zoe the empress-mother
from the palace, disgraced Admiral Himerius, and
reinstated the late Patriarch Nicolas (with needless
insult to the inoffensive intruder Euthymius). Yet
the emperor himself would have held the solemn
renewal and consecration of his totem (crroiyeiov), the
circus wild boar, to be the chief event in his reign.
Basil I. believed in a barefaced hoax, and was ex-
pecting a summons from Elijah the Tishbite to ascend
into heaven in a fiery chariot ; but his son reverted to
a rude and primitive belief, for which we have a
parallel in the Germania of Tacitus (where the boar is
a talisman and an amulet), and in the ancient super-
stitions of the close affinity of the life and fortunes
of an individual with some material object or animal
kin. A single public event is recorded : the insulting
answer given to the envoys of Symeon the Bulgarian
king (893—927), who after a peace of ten years was
about to try the temper of the new ruler. Before
the certain retribution could fall on Alexander's head,
he expired of a complication of disorders, brought
about by temulence and over-exertion in the tennis-
court. Before his death he appointed a new Council
of Regency, and we find ourselves back in the exact
circumstances of the minority of Michael III., seventy
years previous. But there is a momentous and
significant difference in the person and character of
their imperial tutors. First comes the restless and
vindictive patriarch, bold enough to rebuke the inert-
ness of Leo and to bear the consequences, but a
firebrand, cruel and unforgiving : three unknown,

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (912-920) 197

Stephen, master of the palace, John Eladas, master of The
the offices, and a certain Euthymius, all base-born or
alien menials named above ; and the " Abbe Dubois," Council of
John Lazarus, who soon followed his master to the
grave, and will trouble us no more. It seems clear
that the populace, so far from believing themselves
governed by an irresponsible despot, deemed it their
mission to criticise, to protest, and to intimidate — cries
of dissatisfaction were raised not merely among the
generals but in the common talk of the city. "The
Bulgarian army of vengeance was at hand ; was the
fate of the Empire to be entrusted to the nerveless
and untried hands of courtiers ? Let the military
caste provide a champion." Alexander may have
dreamt of rendering his nephew incapable of ruling.
Romanus later certainly excluded his sovereign from
the business or dignity of the monarchy, and perhaps
desired to supplant him altogether in the succession.
But the official classes, and the soldiers, and the
commonalty seem never to have wavered in their
allegiance. Pretenders arise, but only to deliver the
rightful prince ; letters written by him, or in his name,
have marvellous effect ; and the army of the most
popular general of the time melted away like snow
when a single audacious messenger impeaches him in
the emperor's name for turbulence and treason.

§ 2. The name of Constantine Ducas was in every Popula
one's mouth. Disgraced and restored to favour under
Leo VI., he was now defending the Eastern frontier failure and
with success. So strong and frank was the expression death °f
of public feeling that the regents intimated to him in
vaguest terms that he should accept the burden, and
sent him the most sacred pledges of good faith.
Ducas is unwilling to consent to the invitation, from
a fear of this uncertain status, a military respect for
law and usage, and a genuine attachment to the young
emperor. Now follows a tragedy, happily excep-
tional in Byzantine history, though common enough
in Western records down to recent times. He comes

198 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Popular to the capital with a small retinue, and lodges with
demand for a Qregoras. a senator. The news of his arrival spreads.

strong man : °

failure and Before break of day a crowd collects, senators as-
death of semble ; he is proclaimed emperor, and marching
with flambeaux attempts to enter the circus, and
at last turns to the palace. The regents have kept
an unaccountable silence instead of sending to
welcome him. He lays siege to the palace and is re-
pulsed and slain. Three thousand are killed, and the
carnage of the Nika riots finds a parallel. Secure
in this quick triumph, the Council takes summary
vengeance on the malcontents. Some senators are
hung, some beheaded in public ; Gregoras and Ela-
dicus, a patrician, receive the tonsure. The wife of
Ducas is shorn and sent to reside on her estates in
Paphlagonia ; a son Stephen is made a eunuch ; and
of the whole family one son alone survives, Nicolas,
guiltless of his father's treason, like Piso the Younger
under Tiberius, and destined to win a noble death
against the Bulgarians. It would not appear that
their estates were at once confiscated. We may re-
mark on the pitiless rancour of his namesake the
patriarch, who would seem not merely to condone,
but to encourage this severity. Thus ended the first
attempt of one of the military leaders (ol ap-^ovreg
of Psellus) to establish himself as working colleague
of a minor. This time the civilian regency got the
mastery, by trick and perjury. But their days
were already numbered. King Symeon appears
before the walls and is induced to retire. The
immediate crisis past, matters for a time rested.
Zoe s Regency §3. In 914, the young emperor insists on his
Tnti-Bul-°US mother's reca11 J Zoe returns, and at once alters the
garian whole face of affairs, no doubt for the better. The

designs. patriarch is desired to restrict his interest to spiritual
things ; Eladas is retained as Master of the Offices,
but soon dies ; and the other regents lose their posts.
Three servants of Zoe receive high place in the palace,
Constantine (as chamberlain) and two brothers, Con-

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (912-920) 199

stantine and Anastasius Gongyles. The important Zoes Regency
captaincy of the Foreign Legion (eraipeidpxw) is be-
stowed first on Dominicus, and on his removal, on garian
John Garidas ; and the title first found in Symeon's
account of Michael's reign (850) will acquire in-
creasing significance as the years pass. Finally, a
eunuch, Damianus (a name he shares with a cham-
berlain under -cMichael III. and an emir of Tyre
about this time), is given the function of Drungaire of
the Watch (Sp. /3iy\r}$). Thus the ministry was re-
constructed, and once more, as under Constantine
VI., a female regent was supreme. Gossip has played
with the character of Zoe, but her administration was
competent, her conception of imperial policy clear
and straightforward. She it was who first pronounced
(as it were) the watchword " Delenda est Bulgaria"
and with this motto the consistent principles which
swayed the second Basil. On this single aim she
concentrated the whole force of the empire ; and for
this purpose she humbled herself to gain an honour-
able peace with the Saracens. The caliph received
the envoys with a mighty and brilliant display of his
troops ; but the superior valour and success of the
Greeks in the past campaigns were attested by a
singular fact — in the exchange of captives the Mos-
lem in duress so far outnumbered the Christians
that the empress received 120,000 Ibs. of gold.
This may dispose of the foolish calumny that the
empire was exposed during the reigns of such pacific
emperors as Leo VI. to the harassing raids of the
Moslem, and that it bore the insults helpless to avenge
them. We may well surmise that Ducas, the un-
fortunate pretender, carried the war into the enemies'
country, and that the caliph's realm, in spite of out-
ward magnificence already hastening to decay, was
unable to retaliate. The empress, to make her posi-
tion doubly sure, accepted the offer of a defensive
alliance with an Armenian prince ; Ashot, son of the
king of Vasparacan, coming as envoy to arrange terms.

200 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

garian

Zoe's Regency Should the infidel neglect or violate his engagement,
the Armenians were to attack them in the Roman
interest. A similar method was pursued in Europe.
The Patzinaks were engaged to fall on the rear of
the Bulgarians, at their first movement against the
empire ; and the wisdom of this astute policy is ex-
tolled by Zoe's grateful son in an early chapter of his
" Administration." Three small incidents happening
about this time (915) may be recorded as significant
of the general or exceptional conditions : Chazes, an
oppressive governor of Achaea, was assassinated by a
popular rising in an Athenian church : the son of a
Venetian Doge, decorated with the coveted honour of
protospathaire, was seized on the Croat frontier by
Michael, " Duke of Sclabinia," and sent a captive to
the Bulgarians : Adrinople was surrendered for gold
to Symeon by an Armenian commandant, Pancra-
toucas, and seemingly recovered for the empire by the
same means. It is obviously unfair to pass a sweep-
ing indictment on the loyalty or justice of the officials,
or the safety of the frontier, from the slender evidence
which the chroniclers afford. I am disposed to
believe that at this time military and civil governors
had a high sense of duty, whether towards the foreigner
or their own fellow-subjects, — placed by the envious
socialistic conception of government and its functions,
so immeasurably beneath the official hierarchy.

§ 4. The whole forces of the empire were now
concentrated against the Bulgarians ; the court
cannot at least be accused of vacillation. Zoe began
that firm and resentful policy which, interrupted
for a time by the Eastern conquests of Basil II.'s
regents, was resumed by him and brought to a final
conclusion. The treasury was able to make liberal
presents and promises to the troops ; the Church
could bless a pious enterprise ; and one of the most
perfectly equipped armies that had ever left the
capital set forth with the brightest auspices. All
the heads of the well-known families of military

Zoe's policy

military
leaders.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (912-920) 201

specialists were there : Leo Phocas, son of Nicephorus, Zoe's policy

was in chief command ; Bardas, his brother, fifty thwarted by

. . . J dissensions of

years later Caesar during his son s reign ; Romanus military

and Leo, sons of Eustathius Argyrus, already men- leaders.
tioned; and Nicolas, son of the pretender Ducas,
who had been generously pronounced guiltless of his
father's adventure and retained at his post. Melias,
the Armenian, feudal governor for the empire of the
Theme Lycandus which he had himself created, came
at the head of his own Armenian levies, — colonists
and settlers from the shores of the Caspian, tenants
and men-at-arms of their captain and landlord. We
must not fail to do justice to the trustful and
patriotic spirit of the empress and her advisers.
A great and important point of policy is determined ;
the overthrow of the Bulgarian Empire. The safety
of this concentrating movement is assured by adroit
and yet honourable diplomacy. The military leaders
assuming, as it is easy to detect, the familiar feature
of half-independent " wardens of the marches," great
proprietors in Cappadocia or Paphlagonia, are sent
forward without suspicion on a notable enterprise
certain of success. Gibbon, who but ill conceals his
ignorance and impatience of the whole period, falls
into error about the site and the significance of the
battle, or rather series of battles, which ensued.
Achelous is a castle on the Danube, not the classic
stream; and the real lesson of the failure of a
splendid effort is not national cowardice, but the
peril of the competition of professional soldiers.
Everything had been assured that came within the
province of the home administration. The equip-
ment was perfect, the commissariat unimpeachable,
the courage of the troops beyond dispute, the
Patzinak allies were waiting to do their part. But the
example of Ducas had kindled the secret fires of
ambition in many souls; every marshal carried a
diadem in his knapsack. Lecapenus, son of Theo-
phylact the Unbearable, a man of humble origin

202 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Zoe's policy (tdoStw AC. a^jOa/Xyuaro?, according to his son-in-law
^tesemions of and colleague) had been Admiral of the Fleet since
military the last year of Leo VI. He was stationed at the
leaders. Danube's mouth, to co-operate with the land forces
at the fitting moment. During his singularly long
command he had gained the affections of the sailors.
Leo Phocas was more intent on discovering the
intentions of Lecapenus than on securing the easy
victory which lay within his grasp. A first engage-
ment was successful ; but the commander is found
unaccountably missing ; he had gone in secret to
reconnoitre, not the movements of the foe, but the
designs of the High Admiral. A pause ensues ;
the army flies helpless and demoralised ; and
the total and irretrievable defeat that followed
has not many precedents in the records of the
empire. Military honour suffered a deep stain ;
and the reproach was only wiped out with the
success of Basil Bulgaroctonus. The Patzinak allies,
tired of the quarrels of Romanus with John Bogas,
who had conducted Zoe's negotiations with them,
refused to wait longer, and returned to their own
haunts. The shattered remnants of the army regain
the capital ; Leo Phocas impeaches Romanus of high-
treason, and he is sentenced to be blinded. Zoe,
like Eudocia Macrembolitissa a century and a half
later, spares the disgraced admiral, as Romanus
Diogenes was spared. Meantime, with the fury of
shame and despair, the forces repulse Symeon's bold
attack on the capital itself. A spirit is displayed
which at an earlier moment might have broken for ever
the Bulgars' power. Leo Phocas performs prodigies
of valour ; Nicolas dies bravely in the fight. The
danger is over, and domestic intrigue may again
occupy public attention.
Competition § 5. Men were generally agreed that a woman and

of Phocas and a child could no longer bear the entire burden of
Lecapenus. . . ., . .

empire ; and the times were ripe for a revolution.

A Pretender arises, in obedience to popular ex-

CH.IX THE ROMAN EMPIRE (912-920) 203

pectancy, claiming to be Constantine Ducas. He Competition
collects a few followers, fails, and suffers one of
those cruel deaths which sometimes startle us in this
lenient period, and remind the reader that we are
still in the dark ages and the tenth century. The
two protagonists are now left jealously confront-
ing : the stage is clear for the commander of the
troops and the admiral of the fleet. On the advice
of Theodorus, Constantine's tutor, Zoe throws in her
fortunes with the latter, and excludes from the
imperial dignity the powerful family of Phocas for
more than forty years. Secret messages pass and
repass between the flagship and the palace ; the
emperor himself, now fourteen years old, personally
indited a letter, — doubtless in an elegant style and
handwriting which astonished the rough sailor. All
Constantinople takes sides in the duel of the two cham-
pions ; and waits for the inevitable declaration of
open hostilities. This is precipitated by Constantine,
chief of the palace-eunuchs and brother-in-law of Leo.
He comes, haughty and unattended, to pay the men
of the fleet. He is seized by Romanus' orders. In
the palace, Theodorus explains to the affrighted em-
press that the rising is aimed at Leo, the corrupter
of the troops, at Constantine, the intriguer of the
palace. Young Constantine claims to reign alone, and
his ministers banish his mother and boldly cashier
Leo from the colonelcy of the Guards ; Garidas,
already mentioned, succeeds. At the same time a
son, Symeon, and a brother-in-law, Theodorus, are
permitted to retain the joint-command of the Foreign
Legion. When he dutifully retires without a word,
they too are dismissed ; and with singular lack of
penetration, Leo approaches with his tale of griev-
ances the very last person in the world who could
listen with sympathy — Romanus, the High Admiral.
Foolishly satisfied that he can leave his interest safe
in the hands of his rival, Leo retires to his Cappa-
docian estates. On Lady Day, 919, the fleet in

204 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Competition full array appears before the palace. Constantine
consents to interview the admiral, and after mighty
oaths invests him in the imperial chapel with the office
of Grand Hetceriarch, command of those foreign mer-
cenaries who since the reign of Michael III. have
become increasingly important to the safety of the
reigning emperor. Constantine the eunuch, now set
at liberty, writes a reassuring letter to Phocas, and
pacifies his doubts and anxiety. Towards the end
of April, the emperor marries Helena, daughter of
Romanus ; and the proud title ^acriXeoTrdroop is revived
to give him precedence (in the punctilious court) over
all officials and ministers. Christopher, afterwards
associate-emperor for some ten years, succeeds to the
foreign command.

Success and § o. The wrath of Leo Phocas knew no bounds ;

p'nmotionof ^e ^ad keen miserably tricked. Constantine the

Lecapenus. eunuch escapes from the dangerous and uncongenial
atmosphere of the palace where he no longer ruled,
and sought his relative in Cappadocia. He finds
him caballing with three other great lords of the
province. Soon all the scanty troops in Asia Minor
are aroused ; for, secure against the Moslem by Zoe's
diplomacy, it had been denuded of most of its native
forces for the Bulgarian war. The watchword is the
loyal cry, " Forward to Constantinople to save our young
emperor ! " But into the forces, assembling opposite
the capital, there penetrates a clever emissary Symeon.
He persuades the soldiers of Leo's treason, and dis-
plays a violent letter written by the hand of the
imperial calligraphist. The loyal troops desert ; Leo,
left almost alone, is taken and blinded ; and Romanus
expresses with doubtful sincerity the greatest grief
at this summary penalty without orders. The wily
admiral was now convinced that for him there was
no safety, for the empire no stability, unless he
assumed the diadem and the inviolable purple
buskins. Attempts were made to assassinate him
It was reported that Zoe had mingled a deadly potion*

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (913-920) 205

only escaped by accident ; the empress-mother was Success and

conducted, at least on this pretext, into a convent, out ra^otion of

of a public career which she had honourably filled, Lecapenus.

whatever in the low gossip of the time may have

been her private failings. One by one the former

friends and associates of Romanus are removed ;

with great and perhaps needless ingratitude, he arrests

Theodorus, the founder of his fortunes, at table, by the

hands of John Curcuas, and despatches him to solitude

on his Hellespont estates. The steps now are easy to

the supreme place. On September 24 he becomes

Caesar; and emperor and colleague on December 17.

Amidst the greatest tranquillity of the empire within

and without, an almost bloodless revolution has

been effected. A new family, unknown to fame

twenty years before, has seized the throne ; and in a

short time three sons will further strengthen (or

imperil?) its fortunes. But the legitimate heir will

be reduced to the fifth place in this strange imperial

corporation. I have dwelt, it may be objected, with

disproportionate care and superfluous detail on the

events of a brief period of nine years, — events which

display merely the weakness of the empire, the

corruption of the court, the odious and contemptible

character of the " Romans." I am of another Separation of

opinion. In these events, related without under-

standing by the chroniclers, read by us to-day as

mere romantic tales of adventure and lawless

ambition, far weightier issues are concerned than

personal self-seeking, than the natural rivalry of a

soldier and a chamberlain. These few years are the

preparation for that anomalous expedient which

secured to the empire some of her most brilliant

triumphs, the military regency side by side with a

respected sovereign of older lineage, residing almost

like a deity in the sacred recesses of a palace-temple.

But they teach more than this : here first clearly

emerges the conflict between two intelligible ideals,

— of a pacific and conservative civilian state, of a

206 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Separation of strenuous and aggressive military monarchy. The
next centui7 following Basil II.'s assumption of real
control (c. 985) witnesses the fatal steps by which the
empire was ruined by the incompatible claims of
these two principles ; the suspicion of the central
government, defenceless like the Roman Senate
against a determined proconsul leading devoted
troops ; the jealous retrenchment of needful military
subsidies, the hoarding or thriftless policy which
either stored useless ingots or spent the entire
revenue, the surplus resources of the realm, on
palace extravagance and the amusements of an idle
populace : on the other hand, the dangerous rivalries
of a landed feudal class that had grown up to the
expert use of arms in the long internal security and
active foreign policy of the Iconoclasts, — their im-
patience of civilian dictation, an impatience shared
by every soldier of every age and a standing menace
in our own time to the stability of France, — and
their distrust of each other.1

Active Regent Of all this later development the earliest years of
the tenth century give unmistakable premonitions.
Respect for human life, reverence for a hereditary
line ; the retirement of the reigning sovereign into
a seclusion where he becomes the puppet of anony-
mous influences ; the vigour of a female regency,
and the capable policy adopted to consolidate the
European themes ; the dangerous rivalry not merely
of the two services, civil and military, but of marine
and soldier ; and the haughty or apprehensive
abstention of generals who sulk like Achilles in their
tent and will not win an easy victory for fear that
others may reap the reward : these are some of the
features or lessons shown in this brief period.
The next century and a half will trace the further
progress of the great duel ; I can perhaps justify

1 For possessing a genuine class solidarity the "Apxovres would fight for
the honour of their order, but dissolve into hostile units when once the
hated and unpatriotic government of chamberlains had been displaced.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945) 207

both combatants. For the empire needed valiant Active Regent
soldiers, if only they were true patriots. It de- a
pended no less upon the perfect civilian machinery
of control and supply, which, in the Byzantine
as in every monarchy, must find its centre in the
cabinet of the Prince. But this once unique and in-
divisible figure was split into two halves. Before, the
emperor was ubiquitous, omniscient, and master of
all the arts of peace and war. Specialism has in-
vaded high places ; an amicable division of sphere
has taken place. For the next sixty years we have a
Mikado and a Shogun.

B. ROMANUS AND HIS SONS (920-945)

§ 1. The following table will display more lucidly Family of
than an express account the family and connections Romo<nus L
of the new regent-emperor, and the means adopted Legitimism.
to strengthen a precarious position.

Theophylact (a/3curraKTOs),
11 saved Basil's life."

(o-yafiapoeiSrjs). Augusta.

(airb TTJr Aa/caTTTjs),
Admiral, 911 ;
Caesar and Emperor,
919.

bonopsina.

CHRISTOPHER,=
t93i-

PETER, =
King of (
Bulg.

= Sophy. Agatha. =

= Leo STEPHEN. CONSTAN- Theophylact, Helen. =
Argyrus. TINE VIII. Patriarch
Anne, = in 933.
dau. of (i) Helen,
Patr. dau. of Patr.
Adrian.
(2)Theo-
phano.

= CONSTAN-
TINE VII.

t 959-

Mary ROMANUS Marianus
Irene). Michael. Argyrus.

Theophano. =

= ROMANUS II. Daught.

t 963- =JOHN I.

t976.

BASIL II.

t 1025.

CONSTANTINE IX. Theophano. = OTTO II.

1
Anne.

= VLADIMIR
of Russia.

ZOE. THEODORA, OTTO III.,
t 1052. t 1056. t 1003.

The general verdict passed on the rule of this
upstart must be entirely favourable. The empire

208

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Family of
Romanus I.
popular
Legitimism.

was in sore need of a strong hand at the centre,
acknowledged by all. A regent -colleague united
power and responsibility, too long separated in the
secret and accidental influences of the last thirty
years. It is true that Romanus behaved unfairly to
his ward : he reduced him beneath Christopher,
Stephen, and Constantine VIII., and even proposed
to give the infant Romanus precedence of the legiti-
mate sovereign, whose servant and champion he had
ever professed himself. It is also true that, like Eli
(to whom the frank monks and confessors compared
the contrite emperor), he overlooked the failings of
his sons. But he was a sedulous and business-like
administrator ; a kind and charitable dispenser of
the imperial stores to the distressed ; a mild and
indulgent judge towards the treasonable conspirator ;
and, above all, a capable master of those jealous and
unruly services which the empire employed and
feared. At last there was an emperor with the
dignity of Caesar, who was at the same time a man
of affairs, and gave close attention to the public
welfare. For a whole generation (886-919) this
idea of the imperial function had been entirely in
abeyance. The position was an inheritance which,
like landed property, the owner at once made over
to agents and factors, while he enjoyed the fruits of
their labours. The populace of the capital, so far
from resenting this easy partition of duties and
profit, regarded it as the normal and proper state.
It would be wrong to suppose that over an indigent,
ignorant, and servile mass domineered a few proud
palace officials or feudal captains from Lesser Asia ;
that the throne was handed about according to
secret intrigues of the noble and seditious. I believe
it possible to trace a very clear understanding in the
people's mind of the rights and limits of their inter-
ference. This intervention was neither tumultuous
nor arbitrary. It would seem as if the mob, divided
into guilds of handicraftsmen and factions of the

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945) 209

circus (untroubled by the new modern curse of un- Family of
employment) held the scales of the constitution, and j^JT* ^
were the final arbiters of affairs. They were faithful Legitimism.
to Constantine VII. and grumbled at his retirement,
while they acknowledged the ability and the charity
of his regent. They upheld the throne of his son
and grandsons by their silent loyalty, which put the
unique dignity out of reach of the ambitious Phocas
or Zimisces. They endured the brief irritability of
Constantine IX. as they had borne the long and
exacting government of Basil II. They acquiesced
in the female right, which for thirty years bestowed
upon the lucky (or unlucky) husband of Zoe the
most exalted dignity in the world. They heard
without murmur or regret of the death of Romanus
Argyrus (1034), and beheld with indifference the
sudden elevation of the handsome epileptic who
succeeded him. But under this seeming inattention
or carelessness, they watched with profound solici-
tude the fortunes of the two princesses. A suspicion
of rudeness or neglect ensured the unpopularity of
the regents, who during this epoch never once
attracted the loyal regard or affection of the people.
They regarded them with cold and critical gaze, or
on occasion burst out into loud and scornful insult.
As the redoubtable premier of a modern State, armed
with a democratic mandate and supported by a solid
phalanx of silent voters, can never occupy in the public
gaze the same place which is given to a scion of the
royal house ; so the Byzantine populace, much like
our own people to-day, had a rough but clear out-
line of the respective duties of royalty, regency, and
democracy. The regents were something like paid
servants after all, stewards of a great estate,
which, when all was said and done, only changed
hands three times in 145 years, at the death of the
seventh and ninth Constantine and at the death of
Theodora (1056). Gibbon represents these astute,
affectionate, and equitable citizens as a mob of
VOL. II. O

210 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Family of slaves, or rather a herd of cattle. But the verdict
o^alar8 1S superficial and unfair, like his entire treatment of

Legitimism. later Roman history. It might be adroitly turned
against the whole system of female sovereignty, in
which some modern thinkers have seen realised the
ideal of constitutional government — that strange yet
necessary compromise between the sacrosanct dignity
and kingship, and the business function which makes
the temporary wielder of authority responsible both
to his lord and to the nation.

Conspiracies § 2. Neither the family of Romanus nor the house

Romanus I • °* Ph°cas obtained a hold upon the popular mind.

public in- Men heard with equanimity of a new plot against

difference at the regent-emperor, and the lenient justice meted
his overthrow. & ,.,- , , TV

out to the seditious ; and under Romanus con-
spiracies were frequent. Leo Argyrus, a son-in-law
of Romanus, combined with Stephen, master of the
palace, and Paul the Orphanotrophus (a title still
more conspicuous in the next century) : all are
banished. At a review of the household (or the
household troops), Arsenius the Patrician and the
captain of the Manglabites, conspire to seize
Romanus and the young Constantine : betrayed by
a slave, they are blinded, and their estates are for-
feited. A third cabal, also composed of officials
near the throne, is detected and punished ; the
culprits are beaten, tonsured, and exiled. In 924
occurred a sedition of a different sort ; a centrifugal,
separatist, or feudal rising, rather than a personal
quarrel with Romanus, which will throw some light
on that most interesting problem of the time — the
relations with the Armenian kings, vassals, and
peers. Bardas Bo'ilas, a patrician, unites with
potent nobles of the frontiers of Pontus and
Armenia, Adrian and Tazates, aiming at the erection
of a separate and local principality. Curcuas, who
is the permanent and impassable sentinel of the East,
comes up from Cappadocian Caesarea, and speedily
defeats the plot ; he puts out the eyes of Adrian as

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945)

the most culpable, takes Tazates into the corps of Conspiracies
Imperial Manglabites (a place he lost later on a °^l^nusl .
renewal of treason), and sends Bo'ilas into a monas- public in-

tery. The soldiers of the rebels receive a complete difference at
—,, /* i . j.i Ms overthrow.

amnesty. The next attempt was confined to the

palace. John, a minister, had married the daughter
of Cosmas the Postmaster (\oyoO. Spo/u..). He con-
ceives the design of ousting the usurper and taking
his place. His father-in-law and Constantine, grand
master of the palace, spur on his ambition. Romanus,
tired, negligent, or contemptuous of these fruitless
cabals, for long refuses to believe or to take action ;
at last he is convinced of their guilt, gives the two
chief criminals time to escape to the inviolable
retreat of the cloister, and merely flogs the patrician
Cosmas. The idle discontent of courtiers now
spreads to the immediate circle of the regent him-
self. Nicetas, a firm supporter of Romanus during
the crisis of 919, plots against him in 931, probably
in conjunction with Christopher, who married his
daughter : he is made a monk, and Sophy, on the
death of her husband, being still under suspicion, is
removed from the palace. There is a welcome
interval of some ten years during which Romanus
had leisure for an anxious and diligent administra-
tion, the reform of the land laws, the relief of
distress, the liberation of creditors, the repulse of
Hungarians and Russians, and contrite penance for
his own moral lapses. Becoming (like Michael IV.)
severe and ascetic, abandoning in pious exercises
some of his grasp of affairs, Basil the Bird (a faith-
ful servant of Constantine now grown to middle age)
unites with Manuel Curtice, the Armenian, to excite
the conceit and ambition of the two younger
Augusti, Stephen and Constantine VIII. Stephen
yields and Constantine refuses. Romanus is easily
seized, covered with a mantle, taken to an adjoining
island, and tonsured, during the last days of 944.
The two brothers (for Constantine is willing to share

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Conspiracies the fruits if not the danger of crime) discover to
Rotanusl • their chagrin that the Profits of the revolution have
public in- fallen to the rightful heir. The will of Lecapenus

difference at (with the mournful foresight of a disappointed
his overthrow. ^ ,. . • . *> « • ,1 *

parent) gives back the chief place in the Augustan

college to the seventh Constantine. The joy of the
people at this revival of legitimacy is unbounded ;
and it requires no great audacity for the new
monarch or the new ministers to ship off the super-
fluous regents first to their father's retreat, and then
to their several prisons (wherein Stephen survives
nineteen and Constantine but two years).
His diplo- § 3. The foreign wars and the heroes who con-

matic conduct Ducted them cannot be alien to our subject, for the

oj foreign

affairs: military power is a momentum in the constitutional

Bulgarian changes which we are attempting to estimate. The
alliance. «* t • x • r i / \

Bulgarian war engages a trio of generals (921), two

closely connected with Romanus and members of
the feudal aristocracy of birth and arms — Leo
Argyrus and Pothus his brother, and John paiKrwp
(a title found also during Zoe's regency, 911). The
new Admiral of the Fleet recalls the memory and
name of the Armenian Caesar under Theophilus,
Alexius Musel. A total and disgraceful defeat ensues,
perhaps due to the same jealous division of com-
mand which had doomed the splendid promise of
the earlier campaign under Leo Phocas in 919. A
summer palace of the emperor is pillaged and burnt ;
and the whole shore ravaged within an alarming
distance from the capital. In 923, Symeon conducts
a second insulting attack on Byzantium, but is re-
pulsed by the valiant conduct of Sacticius, captain
of the watch . . . (Spovyy. /3iy\.), who died gloriously
in the moment of success. In the next move of the
restless enemy, Romanus scores a distinct diplomatic
victory. The African Sultan is approached by
Symeon with a view to an alliance against the
empire, but the envoys are seized in Calabria and
sent to the capital. The compliments of Romanus

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945) 213

win the caliph ; he remits one-half of a tribute, His diplo-
which we acknowledge with shame was owing, to m^c conduct

•A. r n. i- i_ of foreign

secure the immunity of Italian shores, and re- affairs:

nounced the proposed alliance with the Bulgarians. Bulgarian

• , . . . , alliance.

In 925, Adnnople was again seized, and soon

regained by the empire ; but the next year, Symeon
obtains an interview with Romanus, who expostulates
with him and wins a great diplomatic triumph. The
king returns home highly pleased with the modesty
and judgment of the emperor, and it is many
years before Bulgaria becomes again a formidable
or vindictive foe. The same mild and considerate
bearing secured the affection of the Serbs, who, after
seeing their country ravaged by Bulgaria, place
themselves under the protection of the empire and
continue its vassals. A wise and clement policy in
Greece secured the allegiance or quiescence of the
Mainotes, still half-autonomous, as they continued to
be until the fall of the Turkish dominion ; and the
Slav (who refused levies and tribute fixed under
Michael III.) was pacified and relieved of burden.
Romanus no doubt welcomed the chance of com-
pleting this general policy of conciliation. In 927,
Symeon died, and the glory of Bulgaria was past.
Hungarians, Croats, and Patzinaks pressed round
the headless nation, but no enemy was so dreaded
as the empire. Byzantine tradition was set aside in
the marriage of Christopher's daughter Mary to the
new King Peter, who visited the capital to take
away his bride, deeply impressed by its stately order
and wealth. The alliance, unlike some sudden
political connexions, was of deep and lasting value ;
Mary, renamed Irene, journeyed to and fro between
the two courts as emissary and guarantee of peace.
Romanus now turns his attention to the desolate
cities of Thrace and Macedonia, and rebuilds and
colonises them. In 934, he finds that the Bulgarian
sway in the Balkans has only been reduced to open
the road to more dangerous neighbours, the Hun-

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

His diplo-
matic conduct
of foreign
affairs :
Bulgarian
alliance.

Curcuas and
his long
control of the
eastern
frontier.

garians : these press to the capital, but are induced
to retire by the tact (and no doubt the generosity) of
the emperor. Six years of peace ensue, broken only
by the distant rumours of troubles in Italy, and a
terrible Russian invasion in 941 takes the govern-
ment and the capital entirely unprepared. Of the
imperial fleet but fifteen disabled or superannuated
galleys lay near, the rest were guarding the southern
Asiatic shores from Saracen raids. These, Romanus
equips and mans. Theophanes disperses the invaders
with Greek fire. Other vagrant bands of Russian
marauders are cut off on the north coast of Asia
by Bardas Phocas, and Curcuas, the hero of the
Eastern frontier, rapidly mobilises and comes up in
time to share in the overthrow. The expedition was
a complete failure. The wife of Inger, the Russian
chief, adopts Christianity, but we shall find their
son, Swiatoslaf (2(pei>S6(r6Xa/3os) among the enemies
of the empire some thirty years later. So far as a
steadfast policy was possible in the shifting tribal
quarrels of the North Balkans, Romanus adopted
and pursued it. It was no longer an aggressive war
to the death, as under the regency of Zoe. The
veteran admiral was entirely pacific and preferred to
triumph by compliments and discussion, rather than
by arms. We cannot doubt that the peninsula
recovered much in this quarter of a century, in
spite of the vulnerable capital, exposed to any pirate
from the north by land or sea. The wide battle-
ground of the rival empires becomes more settled
and peaceful, and what a central government could
do to rebuild and to secure was efficiently done.

§ 4. The life of John Curcuas by Manuel, in eight
books, is unhappily lost, but the scanty records in
the annalists leave no doubt as to the vigour and skill
with which he defended the Eastern frontier. For
over twenty-two years he was in supreme com-
mand of the oriental troops, and with his brother
Theophilus, Duke of Chaldia, the chief guardian of

CH.IX THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945) 215

the empire. It would appear that Romanus, himself Curcuas and

no active warrior, knew how to select and to trust

his officers. The two brothers Curcuas belonged to eastern

the new warlike nobility, that was recruited chiefly frontier.

from Armenian families and settled in true feudal

fashion, with retainers, peasants, and men-at-arms in

the rich land of the Armeniac and Anatolic Themes.

John was born in Little Armenia, and was the son

of a captain of 'Lcai/cmu, found conspiring against

Basil in 879. His son Romanus will be seen among

the staff of Nicephorus Phocas ; and his brother,

whose just fame he eclipsed, is the grandfather of

John Zimisces, the third of the capable and patriotic

regents of this century. The Saracen danger

dwindled and disappeared : Melitene passed again

under Roman sovereignty ; the Euphrates was once

more a Roman stream ; and the frontiers were

extended from the Halys to the valley of the Tigris.

The caliphate, passing under the same inexorable

law of royal impotence and military dictatorship,

showed no consistent policy, and wasted its force in

internal disorders. Curcuas was no mere valiant

commander like Leo Phocas. He was astute and

conciliatory ; on his first capture of Melitene, home

of the most dreaded Eastern neighbour of the

empire, his tact and clemency converted two emirs

into friends and vassals of Rome ; they joined his

expeditions and fought in the imperial service. On

their death in 934, the town was recovered by the

Saracens ; but Curcuas, with the aid of Melissenus,

of the Lycandus Theme again assaulted it, and razed

it to the ground. It ceased to be an infidel centre,

and the open territory round it was joined to the

prosperous new theme. Phasiane and Theodosio-

polis had been regained under Leo VI. by Catacalon,

and the Saracens evicted ; but the king of Iberia

had somehow seized the region, alleging a just claim.

Romanus (no doubt on the advice of John Curcuas)

preferred rather to abate the imperial pretensions than

216

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

frontier.

Curcuas and to make an enemy of an Eastern Christian : he con-

cmtrofofthe cec*es to ^e king a^ ^md north of the Araxes, and
eastern he acquires Akhlat and Bitlis, near Lake Van. The

conclusion of this brilliant and useful career shows
a sinister light on the anonymous influence which
made and unmade generals and set a bound to
the mercy or competence of the autocrat. A court
faction stirred up suspicion of his loyalty, and
Romanus after inquiry was convinced of his in-
nocence. To show his whole-hearted confidence, he
proposed an alliance between Euphrosyne, daughter
of Curcuas, and Romanus, son of Constantine VIII.
The emperor was unable to carry out his design, or
save his friend from the storm of indignation and
envy. The high officials triumphed — jealous of a
hero's renown. Curcuas bowed his head to the
storm, retired after continuous toils of twenty-two
years, and doubtless listened to the regrets of the
emperor, who had to confess his own helplessness.
Powers indeed had arisen in the group of families
who sustained the dignity of the empire, in the
satellites of the palace, in the civil bureaucracy,
that put an effective restraint on the free-will of a
sovereign still nominally absolute.

§ 5. We are not concerned as a rule with the
private character of the emperors, on which such
valuable time and space has been wasted. History
should be a record of public service, not of secret
and unwarranted scandal. But it would be unfair
to pass over the democratic sympathies and kindli-
ness which secured the support of the people, by no
means servile, to a despotic system. The indulgence
of the regent to conspirators is known ; but in his
care for popular distress he gratuitously outstripped
the demands made on a modern premier or a
modern sovereign ; and we must not forget that he
combined both offices. The hard winter of 932,
followed by bad seasons, and their retinue, pesti-
lence and famine, brought out the good qualities

Parental

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (920-945) 217

of a kindly man of business. He remits taxa- Parental
tion, builds orphanages and almshouses, constructs
public gardens for the people, and, in one moment
of generosity, freed all the petty debtors of the
capital, not by abolishing the debt but by satisfying
the creditor. It is easy to turn to ridicule the
parental and tutelary instinct which prompted this
minute and untiring care. But it is well to re-
member (i) that Romanus lived in an age when,
outside the empire, office and kingship had almost
no functions, and government was parcelled out
among a herd of unauthorised and violent agents :
(2) that the present age, with its foolishly exalted
belief in the duty and scope of rulers, can say
nothing to disparage the well-meant but excessive
interference of the Byzantines. It is clear that the
emperor, as popular representative against aristo-
cracy, occupied, or was expected to occupy, the
same position as Julius, Augustus, or Trajan. He
alone, in an age when the current set steadily
towards feudalism, was the sole guarantee of justice,
or the sole asylum for the oppressed. Romanus had
to contend with palace cabals, robbing the empire
of its best defenders, with the dangers of a pre-
carious position, with the encroachments of a landed
and military oligarchy. These threatened to control
not merely the whims of monarchy but the ordinary
course of justice, the success of arms, the welfare of
the provincial poor. He broke his oath, it is true, to
Constantine VII., and made tardy amends in his last
testament. But he fully justified his usurpation.
No mere vulgar ambition exalted and sustained him
in an unenviable dignity. Kindly, charitable, politic,
and vigilant, he made possible the later extension of
the empire. He left the Balkan peninsula in peace,
the Eastern frontier secure ; and he may well have
carried into the sometimes penitent, sometimes
cheerful seclusion of his convent the natural satis-
faction of a heavy burden well and honourably borne.

218 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

C. THE REGENCY IN ABEYANCE (945-963) AND
RESTORED (963-976).

The Great § 1. Constantine VII. emerged from a refined

Chamber- seclusion to become at once a popular favourite.

Id'lTLS *

Bringas and This affection supported the dynasty continuously
the two Basils. for over One hundred years, forgave the exactions of
Basil, condoned the suspicious indolence of his
brother, and upheld Zoe and Theodora through evil
and good report. Under Constantine and his son
the office of regent, or acting colleague to the sove-
reign, was left in abeyance. It was only revived
when another long minority threatened to impair the
vitality of a State which always took its tone from
its chief citizen, and expected him both to initiate
and to complete. The reign of Constantine, in its
fullest extent (911—959), was a period of marked
recuperative power and steady policy. The realm
suffered nothing from the control of Romanus, and
the same wary and defensive principles were main-
tained under his son-in-law. At the close of his
reign the empire, now ready to sustain the burden
of wars of aggrandisement, burst into that Chauvinist
enthusiasm which fills the rest of the century with
heroic exploits. The military spirit carries off the
legitimate and purple-born as well as the regents ;
and the regret and fatigued exhaustion which follow
all wars, whether successful or adverse, only set in
when Basil, like Justinian or Lewis XIV., lived too
long for his reputation, if not for his vigour. — The
bloodless revolution which dispossessed the family
of Lecapenus had been the work of Basil the Bird
(o Trereivos).1 His influence, sometimes obscured, was
never wanting till the moment of his mad venture
and tragic penalty (962). Under his adroit sugges-
tion, the personnel of the ministry was entirely changed :
he himself assumed an office of growing importance,
the command of the Foreign Legion, e

1 Or the Cock, see C. vii., i. 78, 3.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975)

six-and-twenty years before, Romanus had begun his The Great
ambitious career with the same title. Bardas Phocas ^hfam^er-
becomes Commander-in-chief, Domestic of the Schools, Bringas and
a name to which was often prefixed the term great, thetwo Basils.
a use maintained down to the last days of the empire.
Nicephorus, his son, the future emperor, is prefect
of the East ; Leo Phocas (afterwards Curopalat) is
governor of Cappadocia ; a third brother of this all-
important family, Constantine, is entrusted with the
prefecture of Seleucia. Marianus Argyrus, grandson
of Romanus, but throughout faithful to the legitimate
line, becomes Count of the Stable (/co/^? crrd/BXov) ;
Manuel Curtice, colonel of the night-watch (Spovyy.
/3iy\.) ; and the regency of Zoe is faintly recalled by
the elevation of a Constantine Gongyles to be High
Admiral of the Fleet. It is not difficult to see what
influence provides the moving weight that decided
the crisis ; the Phocas family played General Monk
to the Restoration. On January 27, 945, the two
puzzled sons of Romanus, who had reaped nothing
from their unfilial ingratitude, were quietly removed
from the palace; Constantine VIII., the more spirited
of the two, killing his gaoler two years later, and in
turn slain by the attendant, was accorded an imperial
funeral ; Stephen survived nineteen years, and was
(according to legend) poisoned by Theophano.1
Romanus died in June 948, peaceful and penitent,
and men forgot the Lecapenian regency, which had
not been an inglorious epoch for the empire. But
the secret and commanding influence of Basil the
chamberlain, natural son of Romanus by a Bulgarian
captive, will be found to dominate the next forty-two
years; for the sole reign of Basil II. can scarcely
be said to begin before the disgrace in 987 of his
namesake, who had confronted Bringas and over-
come him, who had raised Phocas and rid himself of
Zimisces. When we remember the power wielded

1 An unfortunate princess, who had the credit of all notable deaths at a
later period which were not due to obvious violence.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

The Great
Chamber-
lains :

Bringas and
the two Basils.

Literary
culture and
amiable
character of
G. Vll

by Empress Helen, and her general understanding
with her base-born brother, we are justified in saying
that the heirs of Romanus, recognised or unacknow-
ledged, continued to sway the fortunes of Rome.

§ 2. First, as to the character of the new monarch,
who has passed out of the hands of tutors and
governors and come into his own at last. Just a
century after Bardas the Caesar he applies himself to
the task of reviving letters and science, once more
well-nigh extinct. He is typical of the Byzantine
spirit ; of the careful encyclopaedic work of students
without originality. He collected and preserved the
remnants of learning or of the arts ; amassed a library,
and threw it open for public use. He set needy
scholars, in quest of a Maecenas, to work upon agri-
culture (yetoTroviKa), the veterinary art (iTTTriarpiKrj) ;
and engaged them to excerpt the notable and edify-
ing recitals of antiquity in the "Historic Pandects"
of which we possess the valuable "Embassies" and
the less profitable " Virtue and Vice." Upon the
philosopher, scholar, and grammarian he showered
favours ; introduced into the still dignified Senate and
placed on the episcopal bench. He was no mean
painter and architect, and was unusually skilled in
music and a fine singer. He may have learnt in
adversity a genuine sympathy with the distressed,
and he never appears so ignorant and indulgent as
his father. Where he intervened in person he did
right ; and he had a long arm for wrongdoers : Theo-
dorus Crinitas, governor of Calabria, bought corn at
easy prices from the " Roman " subjects, and retailed
at great profit to the Saracens ; he is discovered and
punished. His chief solicitude was for justice; and
significantly enough, we are enabled to trace at this
time two chief authors of mischief, the landed pro-
prietors and the men-at-arms. In the provinces, the
usual encroachment of the capitalist had followed the
hard winter of 932. The reign of Romanus I. had
witnessed the eviction of the yeoman under legal

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 221

forms. In rare cases the small adjacent properties Literary
were seized by force ; far more often by plausible c^^leand
chicanery, or under the guise of a charitable mort- character of
gage and reluctant foreclosure. Constantine and his c- vn-
counsellors, with remarkable intrepidity and patience,
revised all titles to landed estate for the last forty
years ; all unjust or questionable bargains were
annulled and the land given back to the small
occupier free of cost and embarrassment. It is pos-
sible that, like the imperial edicts of China, the im-
perial novels of Constantine were more honoured in the
spirit than in the letter ; but however imperfectly
realised, such a design is a lasting testimony to the
democratic and tribunal basis of Roman sovereignty,
to a systematic defence of the poorer citizens against
corrupt officials, powerful country neighbours, or
overbearing soldiers. Constantine waged war with
all three classes : the men-at-arms had oppressed
the common people under Romanus, who, stay-at-
home though he was, represented the ascendancy of
the military party. But the restored emperor was
emphatically a civilian. He restored the balance in
an empire which still, amid the hopeless disorders
of the time, maintained the supremacy of law, as the
foundation of a civilised State. So far as an emperor
can, he made ordinary justice cheap and incorrup-
tible ; like many of his distinguished predecessors
from Tiberius onwards, he sat in the courts as
assessor, to guide and encourage the judges and stop
the eternal and interested delays of the attorneys.
He made himself readily accessible to all who came
with grievance or complaint. It was noticed that
whereas the charity of Romanus had been content
with alleviating immediate scenes of distress in the
capital, Constantine was equally solicitous of the
welfare of the provinces, too often neglected by a
centralised monarchy. He revived a practice some-
thing like the Caroline institution of the imperial
missi. Patricians whom he could trust were de-

222 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Literary spatched to the outlying districts as commissioners

culture and t inquire into the behaviour of officials or the

amiable

character of insults of the military. Curcuas, once more restored

C. VII. to favour, was despatched to ransom captives ; but
the emperor reserved to himself, as a personal duty,
the visitation of the prisons. He rebuilt at his own
expense the houses consumed by a great fire, and
handed over the new buildings to the grateful pro-
prietors. It is clear that Constantine VII. had a
noble and exalted view of the great administrative
office which he held. It is easy to detect the weak-
ness of a government which, instead of educating
public opinion or sharing the burden of control
with the nation, sets a single individual to watch the
behaviour of the multitudinous petty kings, feudal or
bureaucratic, that prey upon the Commons. It is the
Chinese conception of the supreme authority, which
believes that a secluded and ignorant youth, carefully
kept even from the light of day and shrouded in
impersonality and gloom, can control the official
world. Yet the public, in modern as well as in
ancient times, still secretly believes this world of
salaried place-men or place-hunters to be irretriev-
ably corrupt : from time to time it has armed a
born sovereign or a chosen dictator with a popular
mandate to sweep away the evil, quod semper veta-
bitur semper retinebitur. And Constantine lived in a
complicated age, when modern abuses pressed close
on the heels of the older mischief; when the privi-
leges of soldiers, landlords, and hierarchs were used
to coerce and despoil the poor.

ffisministers, § 3. Basil the Bird was at first all in all ; but the

CtflfficlalftS real Prime minister of Constantine and his son

diplomacy. Romanus was Joseph Bringas, who retained his

authority till 963 : he was treasurer and admiral,

and we may perhaps notice a growing laxity in the

old pedantic rule which, except on rare occasions,

kept such offices apart. There are rumours that this

universal supervision broke down in the increasing

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975)

complexity of the duties and problems of govern- His minister^

ment. Helena and Basil were accused of intruding cabiwt, gifts

., , ... * to officials,

incompetent favourites and of putting responsible diplomacy.

posts to auction ; — a charge like that of poison,
easy to make and difficult to refute. — The happy
family life of the palace makes it hard to credit the
subsequent stories about Romanus and Theophano.
The court was neither niggardly nor profuse ; it was
neither dissolute nor austere : Constantine loved good
cheer and social intercourse. It is said that he em-
ployed his accomplished daughter, Agatha, as inter-
mediary (yoteorm?) between the imperial closet and the
cabinets of the various ministers. No abuse of this
curious usage is noted ; and indeed it was the peculiar
tact of the emperor which made him treat his subjects
as his children and transformed the realm into a single
and a contented household — The prefect of the city
enjoyed a grave and responsible charge ; he was head
of the police department as well as chief stipendiary
magistrate. Theophilus, after an earthquake, was de-
sired to recover the buried effects and furniture, and
restore them to their owners ; he appropriated to his
own use the greater part. Constantine was more ready
to notice and to punish than Justinian ; public indig-
nation (never far from the surface in " despotic and
servile " States) was aroused and satisfied. Theophilus
yielded his post to Constantine, a spathaire, and he
in turn to Theodorus Belonas, both of whom receive
the praise of the historians. Luitprand has left us
some curious details of one of those solemn distribu-
tions of gifts to the official class (poya) which marked
the policy of the later empire : it is useful in estab-
lishing an order of precedence not always very clear.
The three chief offices, master of the palace, grand
domestic, and grand admiral, receive alike a costly
box and 4 robes; the 24 /nayia-TpoL, 24 gold pounds
and 2 mantles ; the patricians, 12 and i. — In foreign
matters, Constantine followed the conciliatory policy
of his father-in-law ; he wooed an alliance with the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

His ministers, Cordovan caliph, Abdurrahman, to divide the Moslem

™bofficia9liftS attack in East and West > and secured his friendship
diplomacy, by a gift of 150 columns of choice marble, — once
more a proof that the OaXaa-a-oKparia (of which the
emperor speaks in his works) was neither an archaism
nor an empty boast. Constantine welcomes to his
court a Hungarian prince, Bulagud, who adopts the
Christian faith along with rich gifts and the title of
patrician. The old habits and instincts were too
potent ; the convert resumes his brigand raids with
his paganism, and seems to have met a shameful
death in Germany. Constantine had better success
with Gylas, another Hungarian catechumen, whose
sincerity was attested by his sparing the lands of the
empire. — The Argyrus family were still in favour,
and Marianus was successful in punishing a strange
revolt of the usually loyal city of Naples ; and later
will be found (962) driving the Hungarians from
Thrace, with the command of prefect of the West.
Pothus Argyrus, his brother, hastily wards off a still
closer attack of the Hungarians (958), as colonel of
the guard, like Belisarius at the close of Justinian's
reign.

§ 4. The death of Constantine, the handsome and
amiable prince, was widely deplored. Romanus II.
dutifully followed his dying advice, and retained
Joseph Bringas as chief minister throughout his
reign. But he added a renegade cleric of his own
choosing to the small conclave in the closet, — a
eunuch-monk, John Cherina, who secured the coveted
post of eraipeidpxr)?. Sisinnius was made prefect of
the city, and rose to be grand logothete, when his
urban magistracy was filled by Theodorus Daphno-
pates. The vicarious glory of Romanus was only
tarnished by the sedition of Basil the Bird, the sole
conspiracy of the brief reign. Discontented with the
circle of new favourites from which he had been
excluded, he proposes to murder Romanus as he
issues from the palace to the hippodrome. His

Romanus II.
and his
advisers.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 225

accomplices apparently saw nothing absurd in his Romanus II.
suggestion that he should be the new monarch. But
a Saracen named Joannitza or Joannicius informs
Bringas. So far from setting a stern precedent to put
an end to these futile and dangerous plots, Romanus
merely makes the accused senators " run the gauntlet "
of the popular derision (eTro'/xTreyo-ei/) ; and reduced to
a short period their exile in a cloister. The fate of
the Bird was tragic and exemplary ; on the dis-
covery of his plot he lost his reason, and died soon
after, a dangerous madman. — The chief interest of
the new reign is not domestic intrigue but foreign
aggrandisement ; and its glory, belonging wholly to
the lieutenants of the emperor, will be recorded when
we have reason to tell the story of their elevation.
The vigorous youth of Romanus, unexercised in
political business or warlike cares, was spent and
exhausted in hunting, athletics, and the wine-cup.
There is no need to seek in darker vices the cause of
the sudden break-down of one who always overtaxed
his forces in the pursuit of these strenuous pleasures,
which were to him the serious occupation of life.
He died on March 15, 963, and once more two
purple-born heirs succeeded to an unquestioned
sceptre under a female regency. Martina in 641, The new

Irene in 780, Theodora in 842, Zoe in 911, Theo- Regency of
1 xl jt i_ Theophano.

phano in 959 : these are the empress-mothers who

reigned over the Romans during a son's minority.
Martina was expelled with ignominy by the Senate ;
Irene succeeded her own son by deposing him ;
Theodora maintained the dignity of court and empire
in a lax age ; and we have attempted to do some
justice to the firm policy and administration of Zoe.
Once more two children and a woman represent the
majesty of the commonwealth ; and as a necessary
result, once again the eyes of the military leaders are
raised to the prize at which Fortune pointed. At
the close of our period, the same situation will recur :
Eudocia Macrembolitissa (long supposed to be the

VOL. II. P

226 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

The new elegant authoress of the Violarium) is left guardian

and re&ent for Michael VII« and his brothers in 1067.
It will be noted that in all these three later cases, a
military dictator is the inevitable sequel. Lecapenus
succeeds not so much by native ability as by public
choice; Theophano soon comes to an agreement
with Phocas ; and Eudocia chooses the luckless
Romanus Diogenes to be the protector of her children.
— But before I treat of the revolution of 963 and
trench upon that historical domain which has been so
brilliantly filled by the works of Schlumberger and
Rambaud, I must devote a section to the dry recital
of the Eastern exploits of Nicephorus, which marked
him out beyond question as the future associate-
emperor.

The East and § 5. In 950, the Emir of Aleppo and Emesa, whom
°f the Greeks cal1 Hamdan, plunged through the Roman
lines into Cappadocia, is reported to have slain the
quite incredible number of 30,000, and lost all
captives and booty by a swift reprisal of the Roman
forces at the "pass of Cicero" in Mount Amanus.
An odd story reaches us about a renegade priest
near Tarsus, who was unfrocked for boldly repelling
a Saracen inroad during divine service : annoyed
at this evil return for his patriotism, he passed over
to the Saracen faith and service, and seems to have
done some mischief to his former friends. Meantime,
Bardas Phocas, commander of the East, had become
unpopular ; his troops refuse to obey him on account
of his greed, and in one engagement with Hamdan
he is deserted by all but his own satellites or l< gladi-
ators." The kindly emperor removes the veteran by
an honourable superannuation, and appoints Nice-
phorus, his son, to the place in 954 : Leo, a brother,
is named governor of Cappadocia ; and Constantine,
already prefect of Seleucia, is made lieutenant of
the two. Almost the whole of Eastern Asia is thus
within the control of the single family of Phocas.
The first attempts of Nicephorus were unsuccessful :

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 227

he was severely defeated by Hamdan. It seems clear The East and
that, like Heraclius, he discovered his first and perhaps ^f"™^ of
heaviest task in efforts to restore Roman discipline.
Under the timid control of Romanus (as we learn else-
where) the military element had oppressed and insulted
the Commons ; the avarice of Bardas had turned
the soldiers loose to find spoil or bare nourishment
among the citizens, whom they were engaged to
protect. Like the later Janissaries, they had become
the terror of their fellow-subjects and the scorn of
the enemy. This necessary work went on silently
while others gained laurels. Basil, drungaire of the
Cibyrrhaeot themey a native of the Thracian Cher-
sonese, attacked and sunk a great Saracen fleet from
Tarsus in southern waters with the few ships which
belonged to his maritime province. Leo marches
on Samosata and takes the city ; but the chief credit
lay with a palace official, Basil the chamberlain,
despatched to share the solicitude and perhaps watch
the movements of the professional soldier. In this
assault, too, John Zimisces first emerges into the light
of history; he convoyed 1700 Saracen knights, well-
mounted and well-equipped, to the capital, as a living
trophy of a prosperous campaign. Meantime, the eyes
of statesmen and soldiers were fixed on Crete, quasi
rebellibus vires ministrantem. This had been in Saracen
possession since the reign of Michael II. (820-829);
the inhabitants had been slain, expelled, or forced to
embrace Islam; and while this island remained a
harbour and refuge for the miscreant pirates, the
sea-supremacy of the Romans and the commerce it
protected were alike unsafe. The first expedition
was confided to a courtier, and proved a disastrous
failure ; Constantine Gongyles, the Paphlagonian,
was perhaps the son of one of Zoe's early favourites
and ministers ; it is difficult to identify him with
his namesake of nearly fifty years before. It was
reserved for the reign of Romanus II. (961) to see
Crete once again Roman. In that year Candia fell ;

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

The East and
the family of
Phocas.

Duel of
Bringas and
Nicephorus :
Patriarch's
decisive
action.

the Emir Curupas becomes an honoured pensioner
at the Byzantine court, receiving lands and the offer
of the senatorial dignity, if he would renounce Islam.
This he refused, and one chronicler gravely in-
forms us that he was a KovpoTraXarr]?, by an obvious
misreading of the true name. His son (Anemas)
serves faithfully under the empire against the
Russians ; and kills one of their three leaders.
While Leo Phocas, decorated with the title General
of the West, obtains a great victory over the Saracens
at Andrassus in Galatia, Nicephorus marches east and
takes Hierapolis, Anazarbus, and Aleppo. Such was
the situation of affairs when Romanus died.

§ 6. The caste-system of Byzantine society recog-
nised three great official orders — the Church, the Army
and the Civil Service, sometimes sharply distinguished
as the Senate. We find as early as the Arcana of
Procopius — that is, about the middle of the sixth
century — a clear line drawn between them ; and in
subsequent writers or annalists no account of a
unanimous choice is complete unless they are all
expressly mentioned, in conjunction with the irre-
sponsible populace, their factions and gilds. The
See of Byzantium had regained its spiritual power
and independence ; the patriarchate was no longer a
provision like an English rectory for a younger son.
In this very year John XII. in Rome was superseded
by Leo VIII., under the control of Otho I.; and
Polyeuctus in New Rome held a recognised position
in the State, and would appear, at least during the
regency of Theophano, to have enjoyed the right of
summoning the Senate. He was friendly to Nice-
phorus, while Bringas, chief of the palace hierarchy,
dreaded as a civilian the military influence. Nice-
phorus celebrated a formal triumph in the circus ;
and to disarm the suspicions of the minister, talked
with him about the religious life which he soon in-
tended to adopt. But he induces Polyeuctus to take
this remarkable step of convoking the Senate and

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975)

inducing Bringas to obey. There the evils or dangers Duel of
of the rule of females and minors were exposed with
frankness ; and a new office is proposed for the most Patriarch

efficient general. An extraordinary situation is re- dec\s™

action

vealed : Theophano and her two sons are not con-
sulted. The civilians merely come to terms with the
military leader. The Senate entrusts to him alone
the appointment, promotion, and removal of all chief
affairs of state ; and engages to settle nothing about
the conduct of the Eastern war except in agreement
with him. But in the Roman Empire, any exceptional
authority tended insensibly to monarchy ; and the
history of the republic is full of the various essays
made to create great posts and commissions which
should be in theory dependent on the civil assembly ;
and is full also of the failure of such a compromise.
It is doubtful if Nicephorus was ambitious of the
purple ; he was probably quite contented with the
formal sanction of his great war, and more than
satisfied as Commander-in-chief with unlimited powers
for the conduct of the Asiatic campaign. But fortune
and the jealousy of Bringas hurried him up the steps
of the throne. While he exercises his new recruits
and restores ancient discipline in Cappadocia, while
he prepares against Tarsus the whole force of his
troops, Bringas writes secretly to John Zimisces and
to Romanus Curcuas, his cousin, bidding them rid
him of the turbulent general. They show the letters
to Nicephorus, and incite him to find safety in the
purple. He is saluted emperor on July 2, quite in
the old Roman fashion, and is perhaps the first prince
since Leo III. to owe his dignity to the shouts of the
soldiers. At the news Bringas wavers, and shows
none of his usual firmness. The son of Romanus I.,
Basil the chamberlain, becomes by an audacious
device complete master of the situation. Arming
his household, 3000 strong, he attacks the supporters
of the minister with success. Bringas enters Saint
Sophia by one door as a suppliant, while Bardas

230 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DTV. B

Duel of
Bringas and
Nicephorus :
Patriarchs
decisive
action.

Nicephorus
II. takes
personal
command of
the war.

Phocas leaves by another to greet his victorious son.
On August 1 6, Polyeuctus solemnly crowns his
nominee: and the usual family compact of the
Phocse amicably distributes the chief places of profit
or command. Leo Phocas is made KovpoiraXdr^, an
office which had by no means become a sinecure
or an empty title ; the command of the Eastern
troops goes to Zimisces, who had merited the pro-
motion ; the venerable Bardas is named Caesar ; while
a certain Manuel, natural son of Leo Phocas, the
emperor's uncle, is found without credit in command
in Sicily. Bringas was banished to Paphlagonia,
then immured in a cloister, and died not long after
the loss of an authority which he had wielded
without a peer for nearly twenty years. The first
achievement of the new reign and the new family,
at last, after some imperial disappointment, was
the gratifying success of Zimisces over the Saracens
near Cilician Adana ; the carnage was so great that
the site long retained the title, " Hill of Blood."

§ 7. But Nicephorus was quite indisposed to entrust
the war to his cousins or lieutenants. His elevation
did not change his character or his conduct. Like
^milianus (253), he believed in a certain straightfor-
ward division of labour. He carries off the Empress
Theophano, now his wife (964), with her two sons to
Cilicia ; safely bestowing them out of reach of in-
trigue at home or foreign danger, he turns to his serious
purpose. His army is now reinforced by a special
troop of Armenians and Iberians, who form, as it were,
the private bodyguard of the militant emperor. In
965, he recovers Anazarbus (which had relapsed),
Mopsuestia, Tarsus ; and in the same year Cyprus is
reunited to the empire. In 966, he forces the Syrian
pashaliks (or other emirates) to become tributary,—
Aleppo, Tripoli, and Damascus ; and lays siege with-
out success to Antioch. He leaves behind him
Burtzes to watch the blockade, and Leo Phocas, a
eunuch, son of the new Curopalat, with strict orders

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 231

not to move during his absence. But the temptation Nicephorus
is too strong; Antioch is reduced; and the two gallant H^^
officers cashiered for serious breach of discipline, command of
Nicephorus at once loses by this untimely severity the war-
that respect which the Byzantines always paid to the
strong leader. Other causes contributed to ruin his His valour,
popularity. He allowed his soldiers the same licence unpopular ity,
uj-jjt. JT - and political

they had enjoyed and abused under Lecapenus ; in errors.

each resumption of the regency, it would appear that
the men assumed the overbearing airs of a military
ascendancy. The war was costly ; new charges had
to be imposed ; money, hitherto spent in lavish doles
to the nobility or public spectacles for the people,
was directed to the urgent needs of the camp. The
revenues of the Church were laid under contribution,
and during the vacancy of a See, needlessly pro-
longed, a steward was sent to administer the revenue,
while putting by a large surplus for the State-treasury.
Every class felt itself aggrieved. Prophecies were
rife as to the violent end in store for the gloomy
emperor ; the palace, under his orders, was trans-
formed into a fortress. The empress was neglected
and indignant ; and the warriors (apyovre?) no longer
trusted the emperor. As for the people, they loaded
him with abuse, and even pelted him with stones.
A breach which could not be healed grew daily wider
between the regent and his subjects. His brother's
administration was unpopular ; like Crinitas in Cala-
bria he had profited by a scarcity in wheat (968), and
retailed at a private profit that commodity which, to
Byzantine socialists, the State held and distributed for
the people's benefit. — Foreign policy was diverted into
new and dangerous channels ; the later " Roman "
device of quelling one foe by calling in another was
resorted to with mischievous effect. Calocyres the
patrician had been sent (967) to invoke the growing
power of the Norse princes in Russia against the
Bulgarians. This country, which had gone rapidly
backwards since the death of Symeon, was in no mood

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

His valour, to offer a stout resistance. The Russians overran
and°^Sy Bulgaria- Nicephorus, to support the failing dynasty,
errors. suggests to King Peter a double marriage to the two

youthful heirs of the empire ; he joyfully accepts, but
dies of grief at the invasion of his country and loss
of his power. By the end of this reign the Norse-
men possessed the open land, and had secured the
capital Peristhlaba. — Only the partial historian can
pretend to see in Nicephorus Phocas a successful
monarch and statesman. The Roman emperor had
two main duties ; to preserve domestic peace, de-
fend the people from encroachments of wealth or
official arrogance, and support the lower ranks in
that mistaken socialist policy of tutelage which was
far too firmly rooted to yield to reform ; outside, to
protect the frontier. A thoroughly capable general,
he was unable to give time to civil matters ; his chief
concern was to procure funds somehow for his cam-
paigns. Abroad, the Eastern frontier has been secured
and extended ; but the Balkan policy was both
treacherous and mistaken. A once hostile and now
friendly power was brought to ruin ; and the restored
Bulgarian monarchs under Basil II. will be animated
by a not unnatural hate of the Romans. The popu-
lace forgot the respect due to sovereigns ; their open
affronts might have been serious to the monarchical
prestige, had not the innocent children of Romanus
won their affection and sympathy. The Church justly
felt aggrieved at the usurpation of Phocas ; and
tidings of his savage murder (gradually published or
whispered in the closing days of 969) were received
with profound indifference or intense relief. It was
just over a century since a similar massacre had ended
the reign of a very different man.

JohnZimisces § 8. Basil the son of Romanus, for whom Nice-

and the settle- phorus had discovered a new title HpoeSpos, at once

^Bulgaria. turned towards the rising sun, and to the end of

the reign of Zimisces maintained a firm control of

domestic affairs. Indeed, it is suspected that the

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 233

emperor was suffered to reign and live only so long JohnZimisces
as he pleased the powerful minister ; and it is clear a^eofsettk~
that important tracts of public business were Bulgaria.
wholly abandoned to civilian control by an emperor
genuinely interested in war alone. Under the
reformed empire of Diocletian, Constantine, and
Justinian, the civilian was always a match for the
military element. While the historian depicts on a
large and glowing canvas the valour of a hero, the
romantic details of a campaign, the ordinary life
of a people (still nine-tenths of a nation's history)
remains without a chronicler. Only a Napoleon,
perhaps, has ever strictly fulfilled the imperial promise,
personal control over both departments of State, un-
relaxed vigilance, and military enterprise. We can
only conjecture dimly amid the tumult and flash of
arms, what the early government was like during
these chivalrous exploits. For twenty years Basil
will retain unquestioned his grasp on public busi-
ness ; for twenty years there will be seen the same
ambition of generals under the cover of a weak but
respected legitimacy, the same cabinet-rule of an
irresponsible chief minister. But for the masterful
spirit of Basil II., the personal control of a Byzantine
sovereign might never have reappeared ; and after all,
this was what a Roman emperor pledged, what the
government needed for efficiency and the people for
security. — The Phocas circle was broken up ; the
Curopalat Leo was banished to Lesbos ; Nicephorus,
his son, TTpwro/Bea-Tidpios, to Imbros ; Bardas Phocas,
the second son, governor of Chaldia and Colonea,
was closely confined in Amasia ; Peter the eunuch

was spared from the general disgrace The death

of Nicephorus was the signal for a widespread move-
ment among the enemies of Rome. The Russians,
now lords of the Balkans, threatened to overrun
the European territory of the empire : there was no
reason why the Bulgarian people, mainly Slavonic,
should not accept the leadership of the Norse princes

234 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

John Zimisces as their cousins had in Russia; the revolution had
™ednthofSettle~ been Purely dynastic. The Moslem powers forgot
Bulgaria. their differences, and closed in round an army with-
out a head; as they supposed. But the defensive
methods were still vigorous ; Nicetas, a patrician and
a eunuch; contrives to overthrow this imposing con-
federacy of unbelievers ; Bardas Sclerus, Zimisces'
brother-iii -law, stationed at Adrinople against the
Russians, issues forth and inflicts a crushing defeat, in
which 20,000 are slain. He is recalled in haste by
the news of a fresh danger, the invariable conspiracy
of the Phocas family so recently disinherited. Leo
and his two sons are discovered, judicially examined,
and (an infrequent sentence for high-treason) con-
demned to death. John modifies the penalty to loss
of sight, and gives directions that it shall be only
formally performed. (Two years later (971) they
are found again conspiring, are again betrayed, and
this time the sentence is really executed, and their
goods are confiscated to the State.) In 970 Sclerus,
another conspicuous figure in the military caste, was
sent to Asia Minor, where at Cappadocian Caesarea
he assembles his forces. In 971 John marches in
command to the Russian war by way of Dristra
(AojooVroAoi/) ; Peristhlaba he captures, and lays siege
to Dristra, where two terrible engagements take place ;
in the latter conflict 15,500 Russians are slain, while
the Romans lose but 350. Zimisces brings with him
a special corps of devoted Armenian troops, who
defend his person and assure the victory (we already
know from Abulpharagius the value attached to
these reinforcements of Armenian infantry, during
the late Syrian wars of Nicephorus). After the
famous interview of the two sovereigns, embellished
by historians, peace is made ; and duly supplied with
provisions and safe conduct the Russian invaders,
remnants of a great host, take their homeward path.
Wenceslas is killed on the way ; and his son Vladimir
marries Anne, sister of the young emperor, and

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 235

begins that long, peaceful influence of church and JohnZimisces

court on the receptive Russians, which is seen sur- ?2?7 <

settlement of

viving, strongly marked and unmistakable in our own Bulgaria.
day. John triumphs with one of those spectacular
processions so familiar of late to the citizens of the
capital ; he divests Boris of his kingship, and trans-
forms him into a docile, imperial official with the
harmless title magister militice. About this time is
abolished a vexatious impost, the smoke-tax, rein-
stated by an emperor of evil memory, Nicephorus I.,
in the early days of the ninth century, which excited
perhaps much the same resentment as our similar
window-tax.

§ 9. The next three years are devoted to the East. John and the
The Great Domestic was nobly continuing the tradi-
tion, called by Armenian writers Mleh demeslikos, in
which we must surely recognise Melias, the governor
of Lycandus, or more probably his son.1 He ravages
Edessa, and takes Nisibis and Amida ; after seven
centuries the fortified towns of the debatable border
are just as they were in the time of Constantius II.
John now came up, having concluded an alliance
with the Armenian kings, Ashot III. and the Prince
of Vasparacan, and received reinforcements : there
had been an anxious moment of uncertainty when
he found the frontier menaced by 80,000 troops,
who at first seemed reluctant to admit the Romans.
The combined forces are directed against the central
citadel of Islam. In Bagdad the feudal forces,
everywhere prevalent in Europe and West Asia, had
substituted for a direct theocratic rule centralised in
the Caliph or Vicar of God, the turbulent rivalry
of emirs. The acting " Shogun," Bakhtiar, of the
impotent captive, had himself resigned to others the
business of government and the defence of the
country. The people, never voiceless at a crisis

1 Mleh, Melias, and Melissenus are perhaps the stages in the develop-
ment of this patronymic.

236 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

John and the in so-called despotic States, rise in sedition against
eastern ^js double indifference. Bakhtiar was alarmed,

campaigns.

gave up his hunting and pleasures, robbed the un-

fortunate caliph, in spite of his protest, of his house-
hold furniture for the expenses of the war, and took
the field. It would appear that this vigorous effort
surprised and baffled the Romans ; Mleh or Melias
is defeated and captured, and the results of his
brilliant enterprise are lost. In 974, John passes
by Nisibis and Amida, proposes to sack " Ecbatana "
(Bagdad), most inviolable and opulent city on earth ;
and after an obscure but successful raid, forces the
caliph into a tributary alliance, which is operative
some thirteen years later. He returns home laden
with booty, and after a brief rest again proceeds
to Syria in 975. He rapidly seizes Membig (or
Hierapolis), Apamea, Emesa, Baalbec. He makes
Damascus pay tribute, and leaves part of his army
for the siege of Tripoli, part, under Burtzes, for
the blockade of Antioch, which again capitulated
to this successful leader after the death of Zimisces.
If we can credit Armenian authorities, he wrote from
Jerusalem itself to Ashot III., sending a present of
2000 slaves and 1000 horse ; and honours the
king's envoys with titular dignities, one Leo (a
clerk) as "rabounapet" and philosopher, the layman
Sempad as magister or protospathaire. It is clear
that John Zimisces valued both the soldiers and
the monarchs of Armenia. Sprung from a native
stock, he felt in sympathy with the race rising
gloriously from centuries of obscure oppression.
The Armenian influence perhaps reached its height
in these two regencies ; and although it declines
somewhat in the following legitimist reaction
(989-1056), yet the fortunes of this warlike people
were closely bound up with the destiny of Rome ;
and the short-sighted policy of Constantine X.
(c. 1050) finally broke up an important bulwark
of the empire.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (945-975) 237

§ 10. But in the moment of triumph and in the Suspicious
prime of life, Zimisces was attacked by deadly though ^j^£
lingering illness. In the autumn of 975 he turns (976).
his face homewards, and moves slowly through the
now peaceful and fertile regions, which his family
and his countrymen had once more annexed to
the empire. The chronicler suddenly lifts the veil
from the secret conflict of the rivals, which the
din of arms allows us to forget. Passing through
Cilicia,by Longias and Dryze,he inquires for the owner
of the prosperous but thinly inhabited country. It
is Basil the chamberlain, and the soldier is indig-
nant that the fruit of his toil and the lands won
by the lives of brave men fall to menials of the
palace. At the Asiatic Mount Olympus he lodges
with a noble, Romanus, whom some affirm to be
a grandson of Romanus Lecapenus. But there is
little need of the story of a poisoned cup. Mortally
ill he reached the capital, and just lived into the new
year. On the loth of January he died, leaving the
young princes to the care of the minister suspected
of his own murder. A strange version of the story
comes from the East ; Matthew of Edessa tells us
that he abdicated in deep repentance at the massacre
of Nicephorus, assembled the grandees (ueyio-raveg to
the Greeks), and placed the crown on the rightful
head of Basil. Retiring into a convent, he was
poisoned by his butler and chamberlain ; whom we
scarcely expect to meet with in that austere sim-
plicity of the cloister, for which several Roman
princes had gladly exchanged a throne. — We have now Hidden
reached the assigned limits of an important period. c°nfactin
We see the Eastern frontiers immensely strengthened, Empire.
as they had not been since Heraclius' reign. There
is a firm alliance with the great Bagratid house
of Armenia. Bulgaria, humbled to the dust, is a
vassal of the empire ; the Russians are no longer
a menace, but are receiving gladly creed, customs,
and even forms of government from imperial Rome.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Hidden
conflict in
the Roman
Empire.

The Byzantine State is the only one in Europe
that deserves the names of monarchy or common-
wealth. But under the surface of this prosperity
are working tendencies and influences whose conflict
will hasten the downfall of the empire. On the one
hand, ambitious feudal captains, whose unique busi-
ness and interest is war, who know nothing and feel
nothing of the cost of military expenditure and the
people's suffering ; on the other, trained officials or
palace favourites, whose ideal is a pacific and un-
adventurous state, who cannot realise the danger
of a soft and vulnerable civilisation in the midst of
hardy neighbours, and whose protests against the
costliness of war are upraised in the interests not so
much of the people as their own.

D. ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS TO REVIVE THE REGENCY:
PERSONAL MONARCHY TRIUMPHS OVER BOTH
DEPARTMENTS, CIVIL AND MILITARY (990-
1025)

The young § 1. Public opinion without doubt, whenever it

Augusti: could be said to exist, predicted a serious conflict
Sclerus (976). between the cabinet and the army-leaders. The
death of Zimisces left every ambitious pretender in
either sphere free to follow his inclinations under
cover of service to the State and to the youthful
emperors. The first act in the drama recalls the
main features of the revolution of 963. Once more
a minister, Basil, holding the place of Bringas (whom
he had supplanted), attempts to remove a dangerous
and popular commander ; in place of Nicephorus
we find the old rival of the house of Phocas, Bardas
Sclerus. He was the obvious successor of Zimisces,
as guardian of the princes and the empire ; his
elevation to partnership seemed a mere matter of
time. The emperors had now reached the age of
eighteen and fifteen, without learning any of the
duties of their station. Basil the chamberlain sue-

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (975-990) 239

ceeded in permanently imprisoning Constantine IX. The young

in a charmed circle of palace-pleasures and illusions ;

revolt oj
Basil II. broke through this restraint and respectful sderus (976}.

mockery ; he learnt life's lessons by bitter experience,
shook off his sloth, startled the rival hierarchy by
acting for himself, issued commands to his subalterns,
and reigned in an inaccessible and perhaps joyless
solitude. — The year 976, beginning early (Jan. 10) Asia Minor
with a new reign, was destined to have more than
its share of exciting incident. The Minister recalled
Theophano to the palace, where she sank into silence
and inaction ; honoured Bardas Sclerus with the
(now favourite) title of Duke of Mesopotamia, but
detached him from the immediate command of the
Oriental armies and the society of his faithful friends ;
sent Burtzes, with a similar title, Duke of Antioch,
to govern the city he had recovered ; and gave a
captaincy to Peter Phocas, the eunuch, nephew of
the late emperor. At this shower of favours upon
the hated and powerful house, Bardas broke into
open protest. Basil the chamberlain lets it be known
among the friends of Sclerus, that if he had a griev-
ance in the office to which he was appointed, he
might retire and live quietly on his estates. Sclerus
revolts, and openly seizes the regency. His son,
Romanus, who might have become a valuable hostage
for his good conduct, is adroitly convoyed from the
capital and joins his father. With the help of
Armenian cavaliers he is saluted emperor by the
troops, and passes into the district of Melitene, so
recently regained. The revolt took on an entirely
Oriental character ; it was chiefly supported (as the
Greeks indignantly realised) with Armenian con-
tingents ; and at one time it seemed likely that two
pretenders at the head of equal armies might avoid
the horrors of civil war by splitting up the integrity
of the empire. Sclerus seized the public taxes and
local resources. But he held the richer inhabitants
to exorbitant ransom, and prevailed on some of

240 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Asia Minor the wealthy proprietors to hand over their whole
fortunes- He was now established in Mesopotamia,
and thought it no disgrace to parley with the infidel
and obtain their succour. The Emirs of Diarbekir
and of Miafarekin join his cause, finding nothing
singular in another ebullition of selfish separatism,
which was then everywhere rife through the caliph's
dominions. Three hundred picked Arabian horse-
men join the rebel standard ; and the camp of
Sclerus is the haunt of bandits, and the centre and
asylum for all the discontented. The Armenian aux-
iliaries include some notable princes — the brother,
Romanus, and the sons, Gregory and Bagrat, of Ashot,
Prince of Taron. The utmost fear prevailed in the
civil councils of the Ministry ; Legitimist generals
who could be trusted were not numerous. At last
Peter Phocas was sent to Caesarea, where all available
troops were assembled in the interest which we must
call, by a stretch of fancy, the Imperialist cause. A
first engagement ended in his success, and special
enmity was shown to the Armenian allies, who were
believed to be the motive and the backbone of the
rebellion. Bardas loses a firm friend in Anthes;
and finds the captain of the Saracen contingent
openly advocating desertion. It is a curious comment
on the times and on the character of the regent,
that the band murders its " believing " commander
and throws in its lot with the Christian general. A
certain Saraces conducts Bardas safely through the
passes watched by Phocas' troops ; and a second
engagement takes place at Lapara on the Armenian
frontier, or, as some aver, at Lycandus. Peter, de-
ceived by the ruse of a mock ^banquet and simulated
doles to the rebel troops, is caught unawares and suffers
heavy loss ; while shortly after, Burtzes, the Duke of
Antioch, declares for his old friend and ally, Sclerus.
As his viceroy in a semi-independent duchy, he
leaves a Moslem, Abdallah Muntasir, who acts with
feudal loyalty (typical of the age) towards his friend,

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (975-990) 241

but on the collapse of Sclerus' rebellion refuses to Asia Minor

restore the city to the empire.1 Andronicus Ducas detachedfrom

J r the empire.

(who may be a member of the ancient house by

Nicolas, the one surviving scion after Constantine's
abortive attempt) also declares for Sclerus ; and the
insurgent sailors of the port of Attalia seem to
have joined with the townsfolk in putting their
admiral in irons and hoisting the black flag. But
this mutinous fleet added little to the cause of
Sclerus or the interest of the war. Commanded by
Manuel Curtice, it sailed to attack the imperial
galleys, still loyal, stationed off the Cibyrrhaeot
Theme. Thence it made for the Hellespont, seized
Abydos as its headquarters, terrorised the capital,
and interrupted its supplies. But the next news we
have is the tidings that Theodorus Carantenus has
annihilated the rebel squadron.

§ 2. Against this powerful confederation of the Defeats of the
land forces the minister Basil despatched Leo ImPerialist

TQYCGS

(TrpcoTopea-Tidpios) and John the patrician. Con-
stantinople had not known such a panic since the
reign of Theodosius III. All kinds of authority were
hastily heaped on the generals, not perhaps without
the secret misgivings of the cabinet. They were
armed with the fullest powers of treating with the
rebels, or bribing them into submission ; and at
their disposal lay all offices and captaincies without
reference to the ministry at home. The Imperialists
reach Cotyaeum in Phrygia. Leo fails in his efforts
to detach the partisans of Sclerus, and succeeds
better by an audacious manoeuvre. Slipping past
their lines he leads his men eastward, as if to
retaliate (like Heraclius) on the homesteads and
fields of the chief supporters of the war. Seeing
their homes threatened, the army, Cappadocian or

1 He is only won over to become an imperial officer by the clever
special pleading of the Bishop of Aleppo (rewarded for this service with
the Patriarchal See of Antioch, and losing his promotion and his liberty
by ungrateful treason towards Basil II. twelve years later).
VOL. II. Q

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Defeats of the Armenian, deserts to the imperial cause. Leo follows
Imperialist Up this skilful ruse by a third engagement; in which
Burtzes and Romanus, son of the pretender, are
defeated ; we shall find the repentant or renegade
Burtzes, along with Eustathius Malei'nus, among
the Imperialists. Once again the special bitterness
against the Armenians was displayed ; no quarter
was given to those who were perhaps unfairly re-
garded as the prime-movers in the sedition. A fourth
battle resulted in an entire change of fortune : Bardas
Sclerus with his brother Constantine falls with his
Eastern cavalry on Leo. An utter rout ensues ; of
the three generals, Peter Phocas and John are slain,
and Leo is taken prisoner. Elated with this over-
whelming success, the rebels march towards the
Bithynian frontier, everywhere welcomed by the
fickle crowds ; the days of Thomas the Socialist
have come back again. The government sends out
Manuel Comnenus, first of the famous house to find
a place in Roman annals, as commander of the
garrison at Nice ; at that moment he held the title
of Prefect of the East. Feigning plenty by sand-
heaps lightly covered with grain, he capitulates and
retires to the capital with his soldiers and the honours
of war, leaving behind an almost empty and famine-
stricken town to Sclerus. There was now no general
who could command the shattered remnants of " Im-
perialism." Driven to extremities, the government
draws from his convent-retreat in Chios Bardas
Phocas, disgraced some six years previously. The
parf- of the two chief actors was now oddly changed
— a Phocas was now the loyalist, a Sclerus the de-
faulter. So low had the fortunes of the central
government ebbed that it was by stealth that the
new leader effected a secret journey to Caesarea, long
prevented by the vigilance of young Romanus Sclerus
from passing into Asia Minor. Placing himself at
the head of the army Phocas retreats to Amorium,
and is there met by Sclerus. The Imperialists are

Phocas

throws
Sclerus.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (975-990)

again defeated ; and nothing but the brilliant strategy Phocas

of a capable and humane general saved the flying (™stored to

J , to favour) over-
and dismayed troops. In turn retreating and facing throws

again to confront the pursuing rebels, Phocas pre- Sclerus.
served his men at serious personal risk from utter
annihilation, with that respect for human life that is
so marked a feature in this Byzantine age. Gathering
together his humiliated forces he again offers battle,
and again is driven to flight. In yet a third engage-
ment Phocas fought with the courage of despair ;
the armies watch the single combat of the heroic
leaders. Sclerus is hurled from his horse, and the
riderless steed spreads the false tidings of his defeat
and death. The rebel army, hitherto victorious, but
depending only upon the personal influence of an
individual, was seized with unreasoning panic and
dispersed in all directions. Sclerus fled to Miafarekin
and thence to the caliph in Bagdad. So ends the
first scene in the contest for the regency. His
followers continue to harass the provinces of Asia
Minor, like the Carlists after legitimate war in Spain.
Lydia, Phrygia, and Caria suffer from their raids,
and it is not till 980 that peace is restored throughout
the peninsula. Before the second act opens, certain
events had taken place in the palace and the capital
which altered the complexion of affairs and shifted
the balance of parties.

§ 3. A new and unexpected factor had appeared : Military
Basil II. in 986 goes in person to the Bulgarian annoyance at
war, in spite of the remonstrance of the chamberlain initiative.
and the open disapproval or ridicule of the military
leaders. At first unsuccessful, he had not been
deterred from continuing an active policy. No
" legitimate " sovereign had commanded the troops
since his namesake ; and even Romanus became a
recluse when he assumed the purple. We shall
again allude to this remarkable decision and the
adverse criticism it aroused ; here we will only add
that Basil scorned the interested advice of those

244 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Military who would have kept the titular emperor a puppet.
annoyance at issuing from his obscurity he learnt to command
initiative. respect and even fear. While the sovereign was
engaged in his Bulgarian campaign, Bardas Phocas
had, in 986, crossed the Euphrates and seized Dara ;
the caliph retaliates on the region of Antioch with
that familiar and purposeless foray which since
Sapor and Chosroes was the favourite method of
Eastern aggression. But Phocas must so far have
succeeded, for we find the Emir of Aleppo paying
tribute again to the empire with the caliph's consent.
The news was brought to the camp that the emperor,
not content with invading the province of the soldier,
had disgraced the minister ; Basil, on suspicion of
a plot, was removed from office, sent across the
Bosphorus, and had the bitterness of seeing all his
public acts and decisions annulled by imperial edict.
Personal control had once more appeared in camp
and cabinet (987). Phocas had been annoyed that his
aid had not been sought for the Bulgarian war ; he
believed himself indispensable. The military caste
met at the castle of Eustathius Malei'nus, at Charsiane,
in Cappadocia ; and on August 15 saluted Phocas
emperor, under the same circumstances and with
the same motives that attended or impelled the pro-
clamation of Isaac Comnenus just seventy years later.
Almost simultaneously there arrived the disconcert-
ing news that Sclerus, the former pretender, had
escaped from the confinement into which the caliph
had thrown him ! For this baffled fugitive, taking
shelter with his soldiers, 3000 in number, in Bagdad,
had been first welcomed, then distrusted and dis-
armed ; but had obtained the caliph's permission
to attack the rebel Persians, and had succeeded.
Instead of returning to a suspicious hospitality, he
turned his cavalcade towards the Roman frontier in
Melitene, and was now preparing to renew his claim
to the regency. The situation closely resembled
the military anarchy of the third century. There

Revolt of
Phocas.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (975-990) 245

were the same well-trained army-corps, the same Revolt of
ambitious leaders or turbulent troops, the same Phocas-
honest and patriotic endeavour to do service to the
State. Once more a Gallienus in the capital was
confronted by rival claimants, who had first to decide
with each other in open fight, and then seize the
defenceless prize of victory. Sclerus got possession
of Malatiya from Basiliscus, the patrician in command,
seized the valuable equipment and resources of the
provincial capital, assumed the imperial title, and
began to negotiate both with the emperor and with
Phocas. To secure a safe retreat in either event,
he despatched his son Romanus Sclerus to Basil II.,
with a feigned distaste for his father's treasonable
schemes and a warm desire to serve the genuine
sovereign. Basil's nature was, at the outset of his
public life, open, confiding, and clement ; the young
renegade (as was supposed) received a hearty welcome,
and even became a principal minister and adviser. To
Phocas, Sclerus suggested a partition of the empire :
so far had feudal views prevailed in undermining
the ideal of a single empire " one and indivisible."
Phocas pretends to agree to this compromise, and
suggests that Sclerus should occupy the further East,
taking as his share Antioch, Phenice, Ccelesyria,
Palestine, and Mesopotamia, leaving the larger part
of Asia Minor and all Europe to him. But a real
understanding between these ancient rivals was in-
conceivable ; at no moment was Phocas sincere in
agreeing to such an accommodation. Inviting Sclerus
to an amicable interview he seizes and despoils him ;
and thus does him the best possible service by
removing him against his will from the dangerous
competition.

§ 4. The curtain rises on the final scene in the Extinction of

drama of the pretenders. Phocas is seen marching revolt by

^ A- i , n x TT ir t • sudden death

on Constantinople (989). Half his army is sent on Ofphocas.

ahead to Chrysopolis, under the patrician Calocyres
Delphinas. Basil II. at the head of the Russian con-

246 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Extinction of tingent falls on them, inflicts a crushing defeat, and

revolt by then and there hangs Calocyr as a warning to
sudden death ... T ,t • *''"«*« ^r-

of Phocas. traitors. In the camp is found the old, restless Nice-

phorus Phocas, blinded by Zimisces after a second
conspiracy. Meantime Phocas himself is attacking
Abydos ; and Basil II. and Constantine IX. (his
unique appearance in war) reach Lampsacus and
offer battle. Once more the fight assumes some-
thing of the aspect of a duel in a tournament of
chivalry. On his way to meet Basil in single
combat Phocas suddenly turns aside, dismounts or
falls from his horse, and instantly expires. His
forces, held together by no principle but the pre-
carious cement of personal loyalty, disband in con-
fusion and receive a general amnesty. The principal
accomplices are submitted to the painless indignity
of a mock procession on asses, seated facing the tail ;
and in this lenient treatment it is worthy of notice
and approval that Basil relieved Leo Melissenus from
this light penalty, because he had in the rebel camp
refused to allow injurious abuse against the rightful
emperors. Basil had now triumphed over his most
serious rival ; but the fires of sedition still smouldered.
Once again, for a third time, the aged and gouty
Sclerus becomes the unwilling centre and focus of
the malcontents. The wife of Phocas releases him
from confinement in the castle of Tyropaeum, and
urges him to succeed to the undying feud with
Legitimacy.

Amnesty and But Sclerus was tired of the cares and perils of
a Pretender's life. His son Romanus was high in
favour with the emperor. Basil, generous to a fault,
offers him the second title in the kingdom, the
coveted KovpoTraXdrw, if he will resign all independent
claims and resume his allegiance. The details of the
interview are well known ; and the whole episode of
the civil war (disastrous though it was in its results
to a wealthy and pacific State) leaves a most pleasing
impression of the age, its humanity, considerateness,

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (975-990) 247

respect for life, and good faith. But the mischief Amnesty and

wrought on the real home of imperial power, Asia *** honours

& . . . toSclerus.

Minor, and on the provincials, was very great ;

perhaps it never really recovered. Feudal armies,
warring for purely personal ends and in service to
some great captain, are rarely bitter, and seldom
fight to the death. The actual loss of life may have
been slight. But the civil order and tranquil course
of justice, on which the empire could especially pride
itself, was thrown into confusion. Great feudal
castles became not merely the meeting-place of the
disaffected and mutinous, but the asylum of the
fugitive villager. Vast territories held by magnates
supported ten thousand head of cattle, but few in-
dependent yeomen or honest husbandmen. The
horrors of civil war were experienced by the neutral
inhabitants of the lower class ; the conflict, half an
exciting tournament to the partisans or " Imperialists,"
wrought real and lasting havoc on the resources and
the population of the peninsula. Yet it must best
be forgotten that such contests and crises are in-
separable accompaniments of the Caesarian ideal. The
best man must be discovered and loaded with plenary
powers, not as titular monarch, but as ubiquitous
general, as personal administrator^ as embodied High
Court of Appeal. We have tried to justify from this
point of view the incessant turmoil and wanton con-
fusion of the third century, which Bardas and Phocas
seem anxious to revive. They acted within their
right, and according to their conscience. But the
triumph of Legitimacy was a real benefit to the
commonwealth. The wish to be ruled by the
ideally best and most competent leads into hopeless
chaos. It may well be doubted if the most able and
virtuous would be the better for unlimited power or
confidence ; and it is certainly not worth while for a
nation to take steps to discover this shy and lurking
genius. Neither China, with her studious and demo-
cratic tests of literary aptitude, nor Rome and Latin

248 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Amnesty and
high honours
to Sclerus.

Personal

government

of Basil II.

(990-1025} :

true

Caesarian

ideal.

America, with the brusque arbitrament of the sword,
provide that order, guarantee that security, which a
government ought to bestow on its subjects. The
hereditary principle reasserted itself at the close of
the tenth century in Byzantium. Men were glad to
obey a prince whose ancestors had reigned, at least
in name, for a century and a quarter, and as some
men whispered, longer. Basil crowned the public
relief and approval by his generous treatment of the
partisans ; not merely did he decorate the ring-
leader with the coveted distinction, but he took his
followers into favour and preserved for them the
titles which Sclerus had bestowed ; this latter indul-
gence became a precedent for the next century.

§ 5. Imperial magnanimity could go no further.
Basil at this epoch in his long reign kept all his
vindictive truculence for the foes of the empire. A
last echo of the regency conflict disturbed the oppres-
sive silence of his later years without awakening his
thirst for vengeance. In 1022, he had left at Con-
stantinople Nicephorus Phocas (son of the pretender
Bardas) and a certain Nicephorus Xiphias, both
valiant commanders, while he is absent. Both
retire in agreement to Cappadocia and revolt. An
Armenian king Sennacherib appears to have assisted
them, with that eager help always forthcoming for
the house of Phocas from that nation. Basil will
not waste the forces of the empire on a contemptible
domestic brawl. He writes to each, promising pardon
if he will rid him of his rival. Xiphias, already regret-
ting his step, lures his companion to an interview and
murders him. This is perhaps the only violent death
by perfidy or judicial sentence that marks this age, if
we except the summary penalty of Calocyr on the
field of battle. The history of Byzantium is in this
respect a welcome contrast to the cruel series of
deaths which East or West of this humane area forms
the staple interest of the historian. — We have no
intention of closely following Basil 1 1. in his Bulgarian

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (990-1025) 249

campaigns of nearly forty years. That task has Personal
already been performed by competent historians, and J/^tatf/j
is well within the scope and power of any pains- (990-1025}
taking military chronicler and tactician. Still it
would be unfair for the constitutional theorist to pass
it by altogether, like Psellus, who devotes much space
to a lengthy account of the pretenders and dismisses
the military achievement of the legitimate prince
with an airy periphrasis. For the Bulgarian wars
account both for the success and the failure of the
" Macedonian " dynasty.

It was the costliness of these expeditions which Rarepheno-
forced Basil II., now the "government/' into an ^^
oppressive fiscal policy, which provoked a strong control of one.
resentment and at a fitting moment produced violent
reaction. Among the later emperors, he stands out
as a unique and masterful spirit, accepting seriously
the impracticable role of Caesarism, as " earthly pro-
vidence " or "present deity" to subject millions.
The autocratic power of a generalissimo he learnt to
exercise in his tireless campaigns ; and he trans-
ported the peremptory tone and methods of the
camp into the cabinet. We shall have occasion to
inquire what were the changes in civil and military
administration under this longest of Byzantine reigns ;
and it will be impossible to separate the austere
lessons of foreign warfare from the modification of
system and principles in both these departments.
An effective personal monarchy is the rarest pheno-
menon in all history ; there being but one still rarer
and more miraculous, an efficient and harmonious
democracy. The line of Roman emperors supplies
by far the greater number of instances. The whole
temper and tradition of the Orient hinders the
realisation of this ideal ; and except in the early days
of a military dynasty and under the eyes of its
founder, no one is so ignorant or innocent of affairs as
the master of all lives and all estates. Feudalism and
the modern expedient of constitutional compromise

250 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Rarepheno- has hitherto always tempered the direct authority
Effective °* ^e central ruler or government by a number of
controlofone. jealous rivals ; political life becomes a resultant of
many forces not easy to predict ; it is always safe to
reduce by one-half the nominal power enjoyed by a
military dictator or a premier with an unparalleled
majority. The Teutonic spirit (which has alone
made progress in the ideal of politics) is usually
" against the government/' and popular nominees
are the last people in the world to enjoy the full
confidence of the nation. The dignified and spec-
tacular side of a Byzantine sovereign's life and duties
detracted much from his vigour and vitality. He
moved in a world of glitter and illusion, dressed and
decorated for public display by obsequious hands,
minutely regulated by custom and the bond-slave
of precedent. Yet how many shook off the sloth
and futility of this laborious splendour ! Basil II.
quitted the court ; and surrendered its fancied
pleasures to Constantine. His aim was to realise
the Caesarian ideal. He would be sole master ; for
to this office was he born. He may have owed his
clemency toward traitors to an absolute and fatalistic
trust in Providence, which had so often overthrown
his domestic foes. He did not believe it would fail
him ; and he could afford to be generous, where a
Tiberius or a Domitian was filled with alarm. But
the genuine claims of Basil II. to the autocrat's title
were deceptive and transitory ; even he was some-
times the victim of the obscure guile of his nameless
ministers ; and on his death the court came to a silent
but resolute decision to limit sovereign power by
every possible means. The history of the remaining
fifty-six years within our prescribed period will prove
a striking comment on the vanity of human will. It
will teach us this lesson, — according to our tempera-
ment and creed, a comfort or a disappointment, —
that no one has less real power than an absolute
ruler.

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (990-1025) 251

§ 6. On the death of the dreaded Zimisces, the Overthrow of
Bulgarian race took heart. Four leaders presented g™aria
themselves as champions of the nationalist move- in the West.
ment, — sons of a late dignitary who had stood very
near the throne. Of these David and Moses are
soon killed ; and Aaron is murdered by Samuel, sole
survivor of this strangely scriptural family, together
with all his children except Ladislas and Alusianus.
Samuel, the Shishmanid, unlike his Old Testament
namesake, becomes king, and on occasion of the
civil war (976-981) is found established in South
Macedonia and in Thessaly, the hapless regions
open throughout Byzantine history to any herd of
adventurous savages. He penetrates to Dalmatia
on the west, and to Peloponnesus on the south,
where he occupies the important station of Larissa.
Basil takes the field in person and lays siege to
Sardica (Triaditza). He is induced to return
hurriedly by the slanderous rumour that Leo Melis-
senus was meditating defection. Samuel falls upon
his line in retreat, inflicts serious loss and captures
the baggage. Basil found Leo entirely innocent of
the charge, and waiting quietly at his post. Conto-
stephanus, his informer, tried to brazen out the
accusation ; and Basil, losing all patience, attacked
him with brutal vigour, but beyond this imperial
chastisement inflicts no further penalty on the author
of a calumnious slander and a disgraceful defeat. —
The second expedition was undertaken in 995 or
996. The Bulgarians were still ravaging Thrace
and Macedonia. Basil fixed the headquarters of the
war in Thessalonica ; repairing the defences of this
second city in Europe, now fully recovered from its
capture and sack in the reign of Leo VI. The com-
mand of the garrison was given to Gregory the
Taronite, a member of that loyal Armenian nobility
who surrendered lands to the empire in exchange
for official title and dignity at court. Indeed, the
prominence of this nationality gave rise to a singular

252 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Overthrow of and incredible legend, to be found in Asolik, —

^f that Samuel the Bulgarian leader was in truth an

Bulgaria in . .

the West. Armenian prince, accepted by the rebels as their
king on the defeat and capture of Curt. The third
campaign (996) was mostly conducted by lieutenants;
the fourth, in 999, found the emperor in person at
Philippopolis ; in 1000, his general, Theodorocanus,
penetrated into Old Bulgaria and reduced Pliscova
and Peristhlaba; Xiphias, who accompanied him, was
the same as the conspirator two-and-twenty years
later. From 1001 to 1014 the war languished ; and
the emperor was continually at the front in the east.
It was during the stubborn resistance of the despair-
ing Bulgarians that the lonely emperor became stern
and reticent, parsimonious and autocratic. The
details of the fifth, sixth, and seventh campaigns belong
to the historian : Samuel died in 1014 ; opposi-
tion under Ladislas was finally broken in 1018 ;
and Basil II. celebrated perhaps the last of ancient
Roman triumphs in 1019. The recovery of the
Danubian frontier had been gained at tremendous
cost of happiness, civilisation, and human life. The
wars of Belisarius had made Italy a scene of desola-
tion ; and Justinian had exhausted his rich Oriental
provinces to reign over a desert in the West. For
the relentless policy of his successor there is more
excuse. No vanity or mere political sentiment
prompted an emperor to consolidate that broken
and incoherent territory, which from the time of
Heraclius to the present day presents us with a
variegated spectacle, and a political problem of un-
ceasing anxiety. He attempted an impossible task.
The Balkan and the Italian peninsulas are natural
outlets into which the vagrant nomads drained.
Teuton, Slav, Finn, Magyar settled in the latter, not
in the compact and solid mass of an invading host,
but in intermittent forays, and built up gradually
and without purpose or design the several strata of
race and nationality. The unifying and centralising

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (990-1025) 253

policy of Basil II. had been anticipated in sheer Overthrow of

self-defence under the regency of Zoe ; her great- *[G™

' Bulgaria in

grandson preferred safety and uniformity at home the West.

to all the Asiatic triumphs of the knight-errants.
Yet the Byzantine system of government and taxa-
tion was unsuitable either to the Italians under
Narses, or to the Bulgars and Serbs under gover-
nors sent out by Basil and his successors. It is
vain perhaps to waste regrets on past political
mistakes ; and still more is it impertinent to offer
advice from the study to statesmen and warriors,
acting under stress of necessity and without know-
ledge of the future. Yet an absolute and uniform
centralisation was never an integral part of the early
imperial ideal. We ask if the complete overthrow of
the dynasty of Theodoric or of Samuel was de-
manded by the State's welfare, if vassal kingdoms
might not have maintained that pleasant federal
diversity and local privilege and autonomy, which, for
example, is to be seen to-day in different measures
in the United States, in India, and in Germany.

§ 7. We come now to the last and gravest Masterful
question — the place and influence of Basil II. in the Jjjj!^
development of political theory and practice. What Basil:

changes did he effect in the civil or military order? c^ngeinthe
TTTI r ,i_ j-j i_ i_ methods of

What legacy of strength or weakness did he be- government.

queath to his house, destined still to reign for over
thirty years ? Character, early training, and the
sharp lessons of political experience, made Basil
what he was. Forced into the background and
kept in tutelage, he had broken his fetters by sheer
force of will, and triumphed over all competitors.
He stood absolutely alone ; he trusted no one ; his
counsels were his own ; and his word was law. He
won this commanding and isolated vantage-ground
by success in war. He was a great captain, and his
subjects feared and respected his unflagging work
and joyless life. He had secured the mastery in
his own house by the removal of his namesake, long

254 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Masterful recognised as holding an official position second
^eservTtf onty ^° ^e emperors', and far surpassing theirs in
Basil: weight. The chamberlain had no successor ; Basil,

change in the unlike many great rulers, rarely fell under the
methods of ...... • I • f i x

government, insidious intrigue of valets and placemen. Rough,

loyal, and often quite unintelligent emissaries carried
abroad the abrupt mandates of the emperor. He
had no confederates in the art or conspiracy of
government. He never lost control or vigilant
watch over himself. Constantine IX. after one
valorous appearance in the field against a pretender,
sank into the not unmanly ease of a Byzantine
gentleman. Basil never forgot that he was the
emperor ; his were no pleasant intervals of leisure,
when among friends and equals the sovereign could
forget his cares and dignity. For forty years he
worked alone ; and the brief and precise military
orders become the model of all cabinet instruction
in the eleventh century.

THE POLICY OF BASIL II.

According to Psellus (whose work deserves, and I hope
may receive, from me a more detailed treatment than is
possible here), Sclerus published to the emperor the secret of
absolute monarchy, how the central power may be kept free
from sedition (OTTWS ov acrrao-tao-Tos efy) — " Abolish the great
appointments (vTrcpoy/covs apx*s) ano^ keep the supplies down
during the campaigns" (/jwySci/a TWV 4i/ a-Tpareiais eav TroAAwv
tvTTopdv). The other wonderful secrets are more apocryphal :
(i) To wear men down by unjust exactions that they may
devote all their anxious time to their own households ; (2) not
to marry a wife or bring a woman to the palace ; (3) not to be
open to any counsellor, but allow very few to know of the
imperial projects. From this moment, it was said, Basil
changed his policy. He reigned alone, and drew the plan of
the campaigns : the political class he ruled not according to
precedent and written law, but his own will ; to men of letters
(the Chinese Literati of Tsin-Hwang-Ti) he paid no heed,
and altogether despised them (rb HoXiTLK^v ov TT/O&S TOVS
vopovs aXXa TT/O^S TOUS a.ypd<f>ovs rfjs avrov

CH. ix THE ROMAN EMPIRE (990-1025) 255

l/<v/?e/ova i/^xW- When the barbarian was tamed, Masterful
he then began to reduce his own subjects, destroy feudal spirit and
,. , .-, / \ v ~ ~ ' A \ ^ reserve of

inequality and privilege (TO, irpovxovra TWV yevwv Kat/eAcov pas^ .

K. els l&ov Tots aAAois Karacrr^cras). He surrounded himself change in the

with a faithful band of servitors, neither clever nor well- methods of

born, who alone shared his secrets : (nva Xo-ydSa irepl avTbv ffOV{

TT€7roirjKO)<s dvSp&v, OVT€ rrjv yvutfirjv Xa/jiTT/owv ovre fJLt]V €7r«r^/xo)v

TO yevos . . . Tovrots ras ^ao-tAet'ovs €7ri<rToXas €ve)(ei/o«re

K. Ttov a7ro/)/5^Twv Kotvwvwv SteTeAet). (Cf. Constantine IX., § 3 ;

Romanus ///., § 18; Constantine X., §§ 29 (a good passage),

80, 134 (the famous phrase: "Our political rulers are not

Pericles or Themistocles, but some miserable Spartacus of the

household ") ; Theodora, § i.) Cf. in Michael V., § 36 : TO plv

yevos ov^ "EAAryva, which explains a good deal of the feeling

against the new official class. I may perhaps be pardoned

for dismissing in somewhat summary fashion the great exploits

of Basil II., on which a flood of new light has lately been

thrown by a more careful inquiry into the oriental authorities ;

for (i) I am preparing a history of this reign in detail under

the kind encouragement of Professor Bury ; and (2) for our

present purpose, which is mainly constitutional, this new

evidence does not alter the general aspect of affairs or the

relation of parties in the State.

CHAPTER X

"LEGITIMATE" ABSOLUTISM, OR CONSTANTINE IX.
AND HIS DAUGHTERS (1025-1056)

A. JOHN THE PAPHLAGONIAN, OR THE CABAL OF
THE UPSTARTS (1025-1042)

Reign of § 1. WITH the death of Basil the obscurity lifts ;

Constantine tne history of the next half-century is voluble and
indolent and explicit. The revived Attic of Psellus gives us the
capricious record of an eye-witness, and indeed an agent.
emper. After Basil's masterful consolidation there is a
certain lull in foreign affairs, which allows us to
catch the whispers of court-intrigues and trace the
secret motives of revolution. The personal monarchy
he bequeathed with unabated prerogative to his
brother. Who were the ministers or satellites of
Basil ? History is silent as to their virtues or their
influence. He preferred dutiful subalterns to frank
partners or wise counsellors. With the turn into
the eleventh century the atmosphere changes ; old
titles disappear. Constantine IX., like Claudius of
old, brings to the administration of an empire the
servants of his household. Three valets compose
his cabinet. Nicolas is Great Chamberlain and
captain of the guard ; Nicephorus is Master of the
Robes (TrpcoTo/Bea-ridpios) ; Symeon, a third, com-
mander of the night-watch — all three decorated with
the title TrpoeSpos, which Nicephorus II. had invented
some sixty years before for Basil, son of Romanus.
Eustathius took charge of the Foreign Legion : the
recent honour of a dukedom was given to Spondylas,
a eunuch, at Antioch ; to Nicetas, a Pisidian, in
Iberia. We have little knowledge of the ordinary

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 257

officials, captains, or judges, who may have held Reign of
functions of defence or administration in the themes; ^^his™
but it is clear that this division was dwindling in indolent and
interest, whether as basis of military defence or civil capricious
jurisdiction. To the short reign of Constantine emper
belong all the familiar features of a thriftless and
dissolute reaction against militarism. For sixty years
actual civil war or foreign campaigns had mono-
polised attention. The arts or enjoyments of peace
were forgotten. Yet Constantine was too old
to enjoy, too ignorant to be the Maecenas of a
brilliant and pacific reign. He was determined not
to engage the empire in conflict ; he had the same
nervous aversion to the sight of arms as James I.
He had been despised by the rough followers of his
brother ; and he hastened to retaliate on every real
or fancied affront. Taxes he collected twice by an
unfair method of reckoning ; peace he purchased
from the barbarians, rather than risk the peril of
a popular general ; the treasury he exhausted by
pensions and palace- waste. He was as fond of
ordering hasty punishments as Michael III. : he
sometimes listened to protest at the moment, was
grateful afterwards for such interference, and often
wept over the blind victims of his suspicions. Con-
stantine, son of Burtzes, the hero of Antioch, lost
his sight. Nicephorus Comnenus, governor of Vas-
puracan, suffered the same on a charge of treason,
because he had bound his mutinous troops by oath
not to desert him. The same treatment befell the
scions of the old turbulent families — Bardas Phocas,
a patrician ; and Basil, son of Romanus Sclerus, both
grandsons of the old pretenders. The latter was a
type of the new feudal nobility, who are by turns
a defence and menace to a free State. He had
married the sister of Romanus Argyrus, afterwards
emperor, and he challenged the governor of Galatia
to the first duel or single combat in Byzantine
history. It is difficult to believe that the actors in

VOL. II. R

258 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Reign of
Constantine
IX. : his

temper.

this strange scene still called themselves Romans.
Prusianus, a Roman governor, is also a son of a
indolent and Bulgarian king Ladislas, the late enemy of the
capricious empire : Sclerus is a rich and independent nobleman,
member of an attainted family, which in any other
kingdom or people would have been wiped out or
reduced to poverty : the emperor is an old dotard of
long descent but doubtful race, who may have been
a Slav, a Macedonian, or an Armenian. Still his
action in this instance is modern and commendable ;
he forbade the duel, and confined the two in different
isles of the Propontis until their bellicose temper
cooled. Sclerus was blinded soon after. The gene-
ral control of the empire seems to have been held
in firm hands ; it was long before the ignorance or
trivial preoccupations of the palace corrupted the
imperial tradition. A revolt in Naupactus, which
closed by the murder of the governor Morogeorge,
was summarily punished, and the bishop lost his
sight, though he loudly protested his innocence.
Diogenes, governor (perhaps duke) of Sirmium,
compelled the invading Patzinaks to repass the
boundary-river. The two governors of Chios and
Samos, and George Theodorocanus, assail a maraud-
ing fleet of Saracen privateers in the Cyclades,
capture twelve vessels, and scatter the rest. Such
is the brief and scanty tale of public events in the
reign of Constantine IX. His chief anxiety was to
secure a partner for his heiress. Eudocia, marked
with the small-pox, had concealed her infirmity in
a convent ; though she could look back on the
romantic alliance proposed with Otto III., her first
cousin : Zoe had reached the mature age of forty-
eight without a husband, through the neglect of
Basil II., her stern uncle ; and Theodora was in
every way better suited for the conventual life,
whence she issued in dignified majesty at any
crisis in the State, to assume control of the Roman
world.

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 259

§ 2. The choice of Constantine fell upon a member Romanus
of the distinguished family of Argyrus. The first jf^|£^d
envoys had been despatched to the East. Constan- gonian bailiff
tine Dalassenus ( = of Thalassa), a typical country
magnate on the confines of Armenia, was the first
candidate for the hand of a princess bringing an
empire as her dowry ; but Symeon, third in rank of
the powerful valets, took hasty measures to stop the
envoys or to delay the departure of Dalassenus by a
peremptory message. The wife of Romanus retired
to make room for a nobler alliance ; and Theodora
having declined a marriage with the husband of a
living and blameless wife, gave way to her sister
Zoe. For the next thirty years the centre of the
stage is occupied by the three husbands of this
princess. It is worthy of note that the courtiers
grumbled at this step, and tried to discover canonical
reasons, more valid in the eyes of the Greek Church
than the survival of the first wife, why the ceremony
should not be solemnised. Their objections were
overruled ; the marriage of Zoe and Romanus took
place; and Constantine expired on November 19,
1028, having ruled alone less than three years. —
Romanus Argyrus, sprung from a family illustrious
since the reign of Michael III. (c. 850), was a typical
Byzantine noble in an age when orderly govern-
ment, regular training, and civilised institutions were
perhaps strictly confined to the empire and the
emirate of Cordova. He desired that the subject-
class should enjoy the blessings of security which
the conquests of Basil II. seemed to guarantee.
The accumulated stores of treasure were now opened
for the benefit of all. Fiscal burdens were lightened
without any impoverishment of central resources,
and for forty years the commonwealth was luxurious
without being weak. Romanus III. reduced the
impost of aAA^Aeyyvoi/, and extended the allevia-
tion to every part of the vast realm. He released
debtors, and paid off from the privy purse not

260 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Romanus merely their arrears to the State, but their private
tS^hto? obligations. His own brother-in-law, Basil Sclerus,
gonian bailiff, received the office or title of Curopalaf, and lost his
dignity and is punished with exile on account of a
plot some time later. The new emperor recalled
Xiphias, the rebel of 1022, from his conventual
retreat ; but accustomed to the peace of the cloister,
he goes to the monastery of Studium of his own
free-will. The invariable conspiracy soon broke the
monotony of court life. Prusianus, the duellist of
the preceding reign, suffers the penalty of blindness,
like his rival, and Mary, his mother, is expelled
from the palace. Constantine Diogenes, nephew of
Romanus by marriage, was suspected of treasonable
designs. He had been removed from command at
Sirmium to the duchy of Thessalonica, which made
him general of all European forces. So powerful
a man had to be treated with caution. He was
sent to Lydia with a similar title and rank ; but
soon arrested, examined, and sent to the Studium,
now the fashionable resort of penitent or futile pre-
tenders. The following accomplices were chastised
and sent into exile : two grandsons of Burtzes of
Antioch, the governor of Achaea, and the Syncellus
John. Within the palace a new and paramount
authority was rising, — the influence of John the
Paphlagonian. Psellus has drawn for us with fair-
ness and probability the portrait of this remarkable
man. For fourteen years an empire of hoary
antiquity and immemorial institutions became the
plaything of an obscure family of valets and eunuchs.
The foundations of the power of John Orphano-
trophus were laid firmly during the principate of
Romanus III. ; though the brothers only divided out
the dignities of the State with scornful arrogance
during the reign of Michael IV. It is a truism that
the favourite ministers of a despot are the alien and
the slave ; but nowhere but in New Rome could
such a sudden exaltation of a whole family be seen,

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056)

among powerful feudal interests and the not less Romanus
important routine of the hierarchy. John, with ^ffJK-^
Constantine and George, had been castrated in boy- gmianbailiff
hood ; a condition of preferment in the Church and
in certain civilian offices. This condition formed
no barrier to military command ; and at this very
time the eunuch Spondylas is Duke of Antioch.
Michael, the future emperor, and Nicetas, were
known as false coiners. John had been at first a
monk, then private servant of Romanus, and on his
master's sudden elevation extended his influence
from the management of a household to the control
of an empire. He became chief minister and con-
fidante ; retaining his monkish habit in a proud
humility. Gradually he collected round him his
four brothers ; introduced Michael, the handsomest,
to the Empress Zoe, connived at an intrigue, and
in the sequel hurried on the marriage and the salu-
tation of " Michael IV.," which gave a dull surprise
to the indifferent populace of the capital. It is
necessary to remember the careful steps by which
an obscure Asiatic factor or agent secured sovereign
power for himself, and the imperial crown for his
brother and his nephew. An attempt was made by
this gloomy but capable man to convert the titular
emperor, no less than the rightful empress, into an
automaton, as in China during the last half-century.
There were thus three nominal or actual wielders
of power : Zoe, in the people's eyes sole legitimate
ruler, from whom all secondary dignities derived
their credentials; Romanus III. (and later, Michael
IV.), who enjoyed a transient supremacy in virtue
of a lucky alliance with an heiress ; and the real
ruler, the " power behind the throne/' andhumilia-

§ 3. The policy, the character, the fate of Romanus tion in the
III., were settled in the East. The fleet of the Duke %£*
of Antioch had been beaten by the Saracens in retrieve
October 1029. Spondylas had before suffered a
serious reverse at the hands of the Emir of Aleppo,

262

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Catastrophe
and humilia-
tion in the
east: lieu-
tenants
retrieve
imperial
failure
(1030).

and was completely deceived by the transparently
hostile offer of Musaraph to build a fort on a com-
manding site near Antioch and assume control of
the garrison himself. The fort was indeed built, but
the Emir of Tripoli was invited to occupy it. In
1030 matters in Northern Syria were so unsatisfactory
that Romanus decided to move in person against
his recalcitrant vassals. Constantine Carantenus, his
brother-in-law, went in advance ; and when the
emperor reached Philomelium in Phrygia, Roman
pride was gratified by the humble offers of the infidel
to resume payment of the tribute as fixed under Nice-
phorus II. Against the unanimous advice of civilians
and soldiers, the emperor decides to continue the
expedition which had already secured its object with-
out a blow or the loss of a single life. An ignominious
defeat was the result of this obstinacy. Baggage
and imperial furniture fell into infidel hands ; and
after a long interval a Roman emperor was seen
to beat a hasty and disorderly retreat. It may be
doubted whether this reverse was retrieved in his
eyes, or rendered still more galling, by the news of
the brilliant successes of Maniaces or Magniac, and
Theoctistus. The former recovered the larger part
of the booty ; and the adroit tact of the latter once
more secured the suzerainty of the empire in Syria,
and won over to a tribute and friendly alliance the
powerful Pinzarich, Emir of Tripoli. The successes
of his lieutenants completely re-established the Roman
authority ; but the prestige and the self-confidence
of Romanus III. had received a severe shock, from
which he never recovered. Abandoning to others
the charge of affairs when he no longer trusted his
own judgment, he became an austere and monk-
ridden builder of superfluous convents and churches,
ceaselessly pulling down and reconstructing on a
new plan. Building may be an unmistakable witness
to national wealth and prosperity ; or (as with Nero,
or Lewis of Bavaria in our own day) a sign of a

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 263

restless and unbalanced mind. Taxes once remitted Catastrophe
to the subject had to be again imposed ; and forced %£ KJf"
labour (something of a novelty in the empire) took east: lieu-

the place of levies with the indigent class. Nature tenants
f ,, . , retrieve

and the enemies of the empire seem to have com- imperiai

bined to throw discredit on the administration of failure
Romanus. The heart of Asia Minor was desolated
by a greedy horde of locusts, which (if we may
believe the story) rose again to life after a feigned
death or slumber of two years, and once more began
their depredations. Mcesia was overrun by the Pat-
zinaks ; the new Mesopotamian provinces by the
Saracens ; the Peloponnesian coast and the islands
by African corsairs. Nicephorus Carantenus (of a
family allied to the emperor) defeats this latter fleet.
Such was the state of Lydia and Phrygia that the
inhabitants fly to Europe to escape the horrors of
famine. Romanus, with the uniform readiness of
an emperor to become relieving-officer in general,
gives to each fugitive a sum of money for the pre-
sent distress ; but refuses to allow a settlement in
Macedonia, and encourages them to return to their
deserted homesteads. When the capital was shaken
or shattered by an earthquake, Romanus hails an
occasion for the exercise of his favourite art; and
rebuilds afresh the lazar-houses and hospitals. Yet
it cannot be said the empire suffered serious hurt
in this reign, either by rashness or neglect. The
emperor chose his servants well, and in the remoter
East rather recovered their lost ground. Magniac
seizes Edessa, and imposes a yearly tribute of 50 Ibs.
of gold.1 Theoctistus is able to win the gratitude of
the Emir of Tripoli, by aiding him to recover his
dignity, and in alliance, wins a great victory over
the Egyptian fleet. In Bagdad the caliph trembled.

1 Under the Chrysargyron, a "tax on industry" (abolished c. 500 by
Anastasius I.), Edessa paid 140 Ibs. of gold in four years : the sum, derived
500 years later, might speak therefore of increased commercial prosperity,
if we did not remember that under the new feudal method the whole
tribute or revenue was paid in a single sum.

264 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Catastrophe In Percrin, a semi-independent emirate near Baby-
and humilia- ion Alim {ne governor capitulates voluntarily ; and
tton in the ' . . j • i_ •

«!*£.• /tew- when, repenting of his bargain, or wounded in his

tenants vanity by some slight, he endeavours to withdraw,

Imperial tne place was taken by assault and attached to the

failure empire. Alda, widow of a king of Abasgia, gives up

(1030). her realm ^at least its Defence) to Rome, like Attalus

of old. The castle of Anakuph is made over to a
Roman garrison ; and in this case (as with the recent
alliance with Tripoli) the goodwill is confirmed by the
title patrician, bestowed on Demetrius, the queen's
son.
The hasty § 4. The life of Romanus was drawing to its close.

marriage of m_health was the lot of the Byzantine sovereign at
Michael the . . J . , *_

Paphla- this time, and especially of the husbands of Zoe.

gmian. j-jer father, a fine figure on horseback, was not seen
walking after he assumed sole control on Basil's
death ; Romanus, already sixty at his accession,
rapidly broke up after his disgraceful defeat in Syria ;
Michael IV., a well-known epileptic, had to devise a
hurried screen of curtains to hide himself from an
audience, and he became at the latter part of his
reign a neurotic and hypochondriac, bathed in tears
and covered with shame ; Michael V. fainted at the
inaugural ceremony in 1041, and could hardly be
revived by the strongest odours ; Constantine X. was
an habitual invalid, unable to walk and suffering
agonies from the gout, which however did not spoil
his easy and forgiving temper. Only the two prin-
cesses seem to have enjoyed sound and robust health.
The idle and credulous, to whom history means the
secret and anonymous memoirs of court intrigue,
were as common in Byzantium as with us. It is
difficult to believe that an age so careful of life in
enemy and traitor should have condoned parricide
and poisoning; or that rulers like Romanus II. and
Zoe should have broken their amiable and lenient
record by exceptional and monstrous crime. But
there can be no doubt she was permanently estranged

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 265

from an ascetic husband, who regarded her with The hasty

aversion. The hurried marriage with Michael (for T-TT//0/

v Michael the
which Patriarch Alexius was summoned in haste on Paphla-

the night of Holy Thursday) caused no stir in the
capital ; and Psellus himself witnessed the livid coun-
tenance of the late emperor as he was borne in state
to burial. The right of Zoe to treat the empire as
a dowry seems to be recognised ; and open expostu-
lation is heard only at the division of the great offices
amongst the low-born family of the new favourite.
Zoe has been compared to Catherine II., without her
ability. But the society of St. Petersburg was in-
different or indulgent to the amours of the great
German princess who completed the work of Peter I.
The polished and inquisitive society of Byzantium
looked carelessly on the marriage ; and disapproved
only of the change of government. Michael IV. was
intended to be a pliant puppet, who would amuse
the empress and leave business to an ambitious
brother. Constantine Dalassenus, member of a well-
known family, expressed in public his contempt for
the gang which under cover of female legitimacy had
secured control of affairs : on the curious pretext
that he had stirred Antioch to revolt he was im-
prisoned, together with his son-in-law, Constantine
Ducas. George, brother of John and Michael, was
mzdeprotovestt'aire; and Constantine succeeded Nicetas
as Duke of Antioch. Stephen, brother-in-law of
the Paphlagonians, was named general in Sicily in
conjunction with Magniac ; and his inefficiency and
arrogance led to the recall and disgrace of this most
capable of imperial lieutenants, and the loss of Sicily
which had been won by his alliance with the Normans.
(In this new feudal age it was only personal influence
and valour which could keep together the mercenary
armies who made of war an art ; the old discipline
and spirit had disappeared, which could do its duty
even in spite of bad generals. Magniac continued
in confinement until the reign of Michael V., 1041 ;

266 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

and it is recorded as the single good action of this
unhappy prince that he restored him to liberty.)
The anxieties § 5- If Sicily sliPPed away from the empire, owing
of Michael to the incompatible tempers of palace-upstart and
^ionoTcm' a^e caPtam> other outlying districts were in a fer-
heir° ment. The Saracens still attacked the south coast

and islands of Lesser Asia ; two admirals of Thracian
Chersonese and the Cibyrrhaeot theme (Constantine
Chages) repulsed these raids with loss. The emir in
Sicily allies with the empire, and his son is created
magister militum; and a treaty is made with Egypt,
and perhaps with Tripoli. Both Servia and Bulgaria
revolt ; Servia, subject since Basil II., had given
trouble in the preceding reign, but had been reduced
to submission about 1038 ; a member of the royal
. house escapes from duress and becomes king, defeat-
ing George Probatas (a trusted eunuch who had acted
successfully in the negotiations with African emirs).
He justified by his failure in arms the protests of the
military caste and the careful division of the services.
Meantime, the inner management of the realm fell
entirely into the hands of John. Michael, like his
predecessor, sought occupation (and perhaps atone-
ment for a crime) in pious but costly building : his
character underwent, also as in the case of Romanus,
a complete change. He was devoted to lepers and
anchorites ; and even in the opinion of the sceptical
populace was but little removed from a saint. Both
Zoe and her husband seem to have earned no dis-
credit or odium from the faults of the minister, who
still preferred the humble title dp(pav6rpo(f)o9 and the
substantial authority of the empire. In the many
plagues or catastrophes which distressed the land at
this juncture, he was accounted the worst ; the taxes
rose, offices were venal, and the governors recouped
themselves for the bribe by oppression. He endea-
voured to secure the continuance of his power by
effecting the adoption of another Michael, his sister's
son : and this nepotism brought about his own down-

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 267

fall and the expulsion of his family. The health of The anxieties
Michael IV. grew worse ; an heir was necessary ; °f^f^ch^el
and Zoe might delegate or transfer, but she could tionofan
never exercise in person the duties of sovereignty. heir-
She reluctantly consented to this adoption ; but the
emperor soon repented of his share in the trans-
action. His serious and melancholy nature was
repelled from the fawning and insincere character.
Michael the younger was indeed the sole type in our
annals of the usual estimate of Byzantine ruler : and
in the popular indignation which flared up against
him alone of this long line, we may relieve the mob
from the indictment of servility. The dying emperor
expelled his nephew from the palace, and relieved
him of the nominal duties of a Caesar; becomes a
monk at the urgent entreaty of his confessor, Zin-
ziluc ; and expires in his holy retreat and the odour
of sanctity, after refusing to see the empress in her
last visit of grief or inquisitiveness.

§ 6. The reign of Michael V. (1041-1042) was Loyal feeling

brief and significant : after this signal and unique ^wards
' . . ^u dynasty

example of a popular rising, no one can reproach the under

monarchy with its unrepresentative character. For Michael V.
a few days Zoe resumed the sceptre ; but she found
the charge irksome and yielded to the advice of
John, to the tears and entreaties of Michael, who
protested that he would ever reign first and most
loyal of her subjects. A letter of recall is produced,
purporting to be written by the hand of the late
emperor ; and she gives her consent to the coronation
of the Caesar. It is difficult to know whether a strain
of madness did not enter into the new sovereign :
his recorded actions are those of a purposeless
ingrate. His own family he hated, as reminding
him of the precarious rise of an upstart ; and in the
grandiose fashion of a Claudian Caesar, proposed not
the murder, but the emasculation of all his relatives.
Constantine, his uncle, created nobilissimus (a title
perhaps dormant since the close of the eighth

268 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Loyalfeeling
towards
dynasty
under
Michael V.

Indignant
populace
storms the
palace and
reinstates
princesses.

century), was a doubtful accomplice in his schemes.
John was exiled to a monastic cloister, to muse
upon his nephew's exercise of power. Alexius,
the patriarch, is banished ; and the Princes' Isle
again becomes the asylum for deposed royalty ;
Zoe is transported thither, and her head is shorn.
To the announcement of the prefect Anastasius in
the circus that Zoe had been guilty of treason and
suffered a fitting penalty, the sole answer was,
"Death to Calaphates." The mob were on this
occasion unanimous and grimly determined. The
two sisters were proclaimed joint-heiresses and co-
empresses, and Theodora was taken from her
monastery to the palace. Michael, in terror, brings
Zoe across and displays her at a window of the
palace ; but the people have but one single cry and a
single aim. Constantine and all the guards defend
the palace ; but the indignant mob enters and sacks
the home of upstart tyranny. It was a splendid
example of that feudal temper which in Scotland
drove many to certain death for the Stuart cause.
Three thousand perished in this rare rebellion of the
inhabitants ; it is uncertain how the loss was ap-
portioned. The tax-lists are said to have perished
in the flames. Michael and his uncle escape and
assume the monastic habit, and the Monday and
Tuesday of this memorable week are over. Zoe now
addresses the multitude from a balcony ; and refuses
the savage demands of the people for the penalty of
death or blindness. But Theodora gives the order ;
and under the direction of the new urban prefect,
Campanares, first Constantine with heroic constancy,
next the emperor with shrinking and entreaties, were
deprived of sight. So terminated a remarkable
period. Since the opening years of the century,
Basil and his brother had employed only rough
sergeants or household slaves ; a few curt commands
had superseded the courteous method of consulting
the Senate .and higher officials. The bailiff of

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 269

Romanus Argyrus as a private noble, had become Indignant
sole responsible minister of Romanus III.; and the ps^^ethe
influence of John was only ended abruptly by his palace and

nephews' ingratitude and folly. The people, by no reinstates

... . princesses.

means, as we see, without weight or views, were

patient under the claims of legitimacy, and resented
nothing but the neglect of the rightful princesses.
When the younger Michael showed the depth of his
spiteful and hypocritical nature, they removed him
with ignominy and restored their heroines in the
only serious popular tumult since the Nika riots, five
centuries before. The field was once again open
for the choice of an aged and capricious lady, or for
the intrigues of courtiers. The joint administration
was not long possible. Theodora retired once more
from the active duties of a ruler; Zoe sought a
third husband, to support the business and the weight
of her arduous heritage.

B. CENTRAL POLICY AND PRETENDERS' AIM DURING
THE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE X. (1042-1054)

1. The joint rule of the two princesses was Ms choice of

a third
husband.

dignified but brief ; together they gave audience and a thtrd

conferred appointments ; at least so far as by an
edict, they endeavoured to reform the venality by
which office had been secured under the upstarts.
Constantine the Nobilissimus refunds a hidden store of
5300 Ibs. of gold which he had diverted to his own
use and future contingencies with all the caution of
a parvenu. The Western armies were entrusted to
the eunuch Nicholas; the Eastern to Constantine
Cabasilas, patrician ; and Magniac (already released
from duress) was decorated with the title Magister
militum, and sent to Italy with fullest powers and an
undivided command. But feminine rule could not
last long in New Rome. Never resented by the
people at large, it seemed nevertheless unfitting, and

270 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Zoe's choice of gave way to a regent-husband or to a new dynasty.

a third £oe proposed to the Senate to elect a new prince.

husband. . x L . , J . , ..

and promised to postpone her own feelings to the

public welfare in accepting their choice without
demur. The option, after this protestation, lay
naturally with the empress ; and three bearers of the
immortal name of Constantine were accorded an
interview. Constantine Dalassenus (from Thalassa
on the Euxine) arrived to receive a gracious pardon
after a gratuitous imprisonment of eight years. He
came in a very natural state of bitterness and irrita-
tion ; gave advice in a lofty tone ; and made no
effort to conceal his strong disapproval of the late
Paphlagonian cabal. Constantine Archoclines (? a
title) is removed by premature demise from the
tempting offer ; and gossip suspected a jealous wife.
Constantine Monomachus (husband of a niece of
Romanus III.) stood next on the list: he had been
banished to Mitylene seven years before by Michael
IV., on account of his supposed intimacy with Zoe.
Exile had not soured the complacent and amiable
disposition of the new ruler. A swift galley con-
veyed the astonished suitor from a subordinate rank
in Greece to the throne ; and although Alexius the
Patriarch refuses to perform the marriage rite, he
consents next day to crown the united pair.
Theodora lost by this event all direct authority, but
continued to enjoy the imperial title and dignity and to
reside in the palace. The short spring of the sisters'
government (April to June) gave way before the
summer or rather autumnal brilliance of the mature
Anomalous couple. Like an echo or grotesque parody of the old
TofMono rivalry of the Sclerus family, Scleraena, a charming
machus and widow who had shared the exile and soothed the temper
Scleroma. of Monomachus, was admitted to the capital, to the
palace, and to the Augustan title. The arrangement
might be said to resemble the special exemption of
the French kings from moral restraint — a relic, it
may be, of Merovingian polygamy ; the maUresse en

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056)

litre held a recognised position by the side of the Anomalous
legitimate spouse of prudence or of policy. Scleraena ^^
was the daughter of Romanus Sclerus, and perhaps machus and
the great-granddaughter of the pretender Bardas.
Her chambers adjoined those of Constantine, and
were not far from the apartments of Zoe, who re-
garded the arrangement with equanimity or indiffer-
ence : the disorder took on a regular and formal
character, and was thus robbed of half its evil.
Into these two twin reservoirs or receptacles poured
the entire treasure of the empire. If we believe
the partial witness, the palace saw a double ocean of
waste, a double court of intrigue and venal office.
The faults or infirmities of Monomachus were for-
gotten in the mildness of his character and the
prosperity of his reign. For, however easy it may
be for us or for Psellus to detect the unmistakable
signs of decay and omens of coming doom, there
can be no question that in the later empire this
reign of twelve years was the zenith and meridian
splendour.

§ 2. The domestic history was diversified by con- Usual series
stant plots and seditions, some serious, some humorous °J t/n*
and half-hearted, but none (so far as can be seen)
embodying any principle or genuine grievance. The
setting of this motley drama is like the staging of a
sovereign and his court in a pantomime. It is im-
possible to believe the actors in earnest; and the
foolish but criminal impulse of the moment is rapidly
forgotten and forgiven, (a) Theophilus Eroticus,
once chased from Bulgaria by Stephen Boisthlabos,
was now governor of Cyprus. On hearing of the
downfall of Michael V., he conceived a design, by
no means uncommon at the time, of securing his
province as an independent sovereignty. To win
popular favour, he posed as the champion of the
people's rights ; and was hailed as a liberator when
he effected (or forgave) the murder of the finance-
official, Theophylact, as a just punishment for the

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Magniac's
attempt.

Usual series rigour of his extortions.1 The appearance of Con-
stantine Chages, still Drungatre of the Cibyrrhseot
theme, sufficed to end the plot : the people at once
returned to their allegiance ; and Eroticus, taken to
the capital, was forced to disport himself in female
attire for the delectation of the citizens : had Con-
stantine X. (we may ask) heard of the mock penalty
meted out by Julius Caesar to the knight Laberius ?
(b) In the same year (1042), Magniac revolted in
Italy, and the cause of his resentment was a feudal
quarrel about land. Scleraena's brother, Romanus,
held an adjoining estate in the great home of wealthy
landlords, Asia Minor : he profited by Magniac's
absence on state-service to encroach or to annex,
and finally to secure the recall of his provincial rival.
Magniac revolts, and, assuming the imperial title,
crosses with a devoted personal following to Epirus
to attack the seat of government. Unlike Eroticus, he
aspired not to a part but to the whole. The emperor,
providing for a doubtful event, sent his mutinous
lieutenant a complete amnesty, but despatched a
strong force under Stephen the Sebastophorus.2 In
a sharp engagement at Ostrovo, Magniac is killed
and his men join the imperialists ; for beyond the
personal grievance there was no cause and no con-
viction. The head of the pretender was borne in
solemn state to the capital, and the splendid pro-
cession of the easily victorious troops was witnessed
by the emperor and his two spouses. In reward for
his attitude in the rising, Constantine creates Argyrus,
son of Mel the rebel, the Prince of Bari and Duke
of Apulia. (c) Stephen, so lately successful on the
imperial side, now in his turn becomes a conspirator.

1 We may note here the same rivalry of executive and exchequer as we
observe in the earliest account of the Roman provinces, when the inde-
pendent procurator watched or thwarted the responsible governor.

2 This is probably a title designating those commandants of a quarter of
Constantinople who had the right to carry the imperial image on State
occasions ; it was a coveted distinction which patricians might envy, but
the wearer was subject to the control of the city prefect.

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 273

His design was to raise Leo, son of Lamprus, the Various
governor of Melitene, to the throne. Against this-^7e^-
latter the whole resentment of the court party seemed
to concentrate ; while the ringleaders lost their
estates and became monks, Lamprus was tortured
and blinded, and died from the effects. It is im-
possible to assign any motive for this unprecedented
departure from the well-known rule of Byzantine
lenience, (d) The emperor's life was perhaps more
endangered by a sudden popular outburst during
a religious procession of the Qth of March 1044.
Once more the mob, jealous of the rights and dignity
of Zoe and Theodora, raised angry voices of protest
against Scleraena, like the mob of older Rome against
Donna Olympia under Innocent XII. He was
threatened with death, and the tumult was appeased
only by the appearance of the two aged heiresses at
the palace window.

§ 3. (e) Having weathered this minor storm, the Rebellion of

luckless emperor found in the revolt of his kinsman Thornic and
—... . , the troops of

Leo Thornic or Tormcius, a genuine tempest (1047). Macedonia.

From this moment until the close of our period
Adrinople becomes a troublesome centre of dis-
affection, justifying, as I think, two conclusions — a
large element of transplanted Armenians, and a
strong desire to vie with the Oriental armies in
the nomination of the sovereign. It is quite as
much from this revival of the Western battalions
under Basil II., as from the ancient splendour of
Philip and Alexander, that the name Macedonian
acquired and retained a sense of " warlike," " noble,"
or " valiant," like Aryan; the Drakoi Hellenes of
Mount Taurus bore it with pride, and its use sur-
vived as a honorific term for the mercenary troops
of Naples or Venice. In the streams of Slavonic,
Bulgarian, Servian migration and settlement, little
remained of Justinian's warlike subjects on either
side of the Danube (homines semper bellicis sudoribus
inhcerentesy c. 535) ; whole towns and districts had

VOL. II. S

274 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Rebellion of welcomed a new and peregrine population since his
t^tro^pTof naniesake (c. 700); if Philippopolis received its
Macedonia, heretical contingent under the Iconoclasts, a colony
of stout Tauric militia may well have thriven in
Adrinople. The European towns of the empire
are not buried, indeed, under the deep silence which
in all this period hides the annals of the Ionian cities
of the Asiatic coast ; and their meagre record is at
times illuminated by such a writing as the " Capture of
Salonica" (under Leo VI.). The task remains for the
careful student and speculator to inquire into the
condition of the commercial centres of Thrace and
Macedonia ; and it may safely be predicted that
whenever there is an appearance of new life and
fresh vigour, it will have risen from some Eastern
settlement. The armies of Spain, of Ger mania, and
of Syria contended for the prerogative at the death
of Nero ; of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia at the
murder of Pertinax. In the welter of the third
century, there is a semblance of earnest purpose
when each regiment believed its captain to be the
most fitting heir to Caesar. The provincial troops of
Constantine decided the mastery of the world, and
ended for ever the exclusive claims of Rome and her
pretorians. Justinian had attempted to reduce the
armies to harmless and occasional levies ; but the
civilian scheme of society broke down before the
Heracliads and Isaurians, and the State was re-
organised on the military basis of which the themes
afford sufficient evidence. Chief amongst these were
the Anatolics and Armeniacs ; and for long these
regiments were the arbiters of the monarchy, and
their support essential to the continuance of a
dynasty. But it must not be forgotten that the
Balkan peninsula was gradually filled with a strange
population ; that Basil II. drove the frontier boldly
northwards to the old line of the Danube ; and that
the new citizens, soldiers, or colonists offered a
welcome counterpoise to the predominance of Asia.

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 275

And yet the chief and decisive element among the Rebellion of
Slavs, Croats, Serbs or Bulgars was, after all, %£%££
not European at all. Ghevond Thornic, or Leo Macedonia.
Tornicius, was a popular favourite (perhaps a feudal
magnate ?) among the Macedonian faction. Their
headquarters were at Adrinople, but they had their
members and representatives in the capital. Tornic
was a cousin of Constantine X. on the mother's side
(e£ave\l/io$ e/c MrpiKtjs pity?), belching forth the true
braggadocio of Macedon (MaKeSovtKrjv 'epvyyavwv
lj.eya\avxiav). The faction is headstrong and obstre-
perous (avOaSrjs K. Qpavvs) ; and though now unused
to the regular practice of arms, vulgar and lacking
reverence for imperial dignity (cf. the iroKiriKfj
pw/moXo-xfa to Constantine in the balcony scene).
Leo is removed from his dangerous friends to the
dignified isolation of an Iberian governor. There
he is followed by rumours and suspicions of his
loyalty ; he is recalled and compelled to assume the
monastic habit. Constantine granted him an inter-
view, but merely laughed immoderately at his altered
appearance. The insult rankled, and Tornicius pro-
mised himself revenge. His clan, with the Macedonian
faction, rescue him and carry him off.1 With his
company of robbers, Scamars, or devoted adherents,
he advances to the walls without let or hindrance, and
attempts to enter by the Blachern Gates. As Justinian

1 Leo Tornicius was no aggressive usurper ; he pleaded the commission
of legitimacy (Psellus, § 102). The story went round that Theodora, now
recognised as the rightful sovereign, had chosen Leo, rbv £K Ma/ceSov/as.
The military faction could thus satisfy their faith to legitimacy, and their
desire for an active regent. They trusted that the scanty forces in the city
would join them, already angry with the emperor for his innovations.
Anxious to see a soldier on the throne, they might take an active part
in the defence of the State (81' dpyys rbv Af/TOKpdropa e'xovres (the urban
troops) tireLSii K. Katvoro/jLeiv /car' atirwv tfp£a.TO K. r^v irpoedpiav avrov
dvffxePalv°VTe* K- Pov\6fj.tvoi 2iTpa.TL<j[)TV]v t'Setv atiTOfcpdropa <7<f)uv re TTpoKivSv-
vf.'uovro. K. ras £iri5 papas rdov f3ap(3dpui> dvetpyovra). So on approach to
the capital they ask the citizens to open the gates to them, and admit
a gracious and valorous emperor who would guard and promote the
empire (tirieiKTj K. xf^ffT^v avroKp. <t>t\avdpd)7rus re aurots xP'rJ<r^fJI'et'ov K- T&
Kpdros rots /caret T&V /Sap/Jdpwv TroXfycow re AC. rpoiralois

276 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Rebellion of
Thornic and
the troops of
Macedonia.

End of
Thornic :
excuses for
the military
party.

in a similar crisis just 500 years before, the emperor
with difficulty raised 1000 men, valets and guards-
men. Argyrus, the Italian rebel, now ally and vassal
of the empire, recommends him to keep within, and
not expose his person or his weakness to the dis-
orderly rabble. Constantine sits on a balcony in
full view of the invading army, in all his imperial
panoply ; he is mortified by the gross rudeness of
the Macedonians, who dance grotesquely before him,
imitating his gouty movements. He is menaced
by missiles, and retires hastily. Tornicius missed his
lucky moment, and gave up the enterprise in the
moment of success. He falls back on Adrinople ; he
fails to reduce Rhedestus, which is kept in the narrow
path of loyalty by the patriarch and the chief inhabit-
ant, though a relative of the pretender.

§ 4. Yet the crisis seemed serious enough to
warrant the recall of the Eastern troops.1 They were
divided into two ; and part crossing at Chryso-
polis, part at Abydos, the whole force converged
on the disaffected region, completely enveloping the
mutineers at Adrinople. lasita, well known to us
in his Armenian command, observed the severest
discipline and restraint in this civil war. No pillage
was allowed ; deserters were welcomed, and amnesty
given to all except the ringleaders. Tornic is
gradually left alone with his faithful lieutenant, John
Batazes ; he takes refuge in a church, but is seized
and blinded.2 Pardon is granted generally, and the

1 The people of Byzantium, turning war, like everything else, "into a
joke and pastime," hastened to enrol for the emperor. § 112. nx?)0os
Tro\i.TtKu>t> of>K dXiybv, £de\ovTai 5£ oOrot rails X6%ois eaurois effeSlboffav, &ffirep
TL r&v &\\uv K. rbv 7r6\€fj.ov iratfovTes. Nor were Leo's soldiers more
serious ; the whole rebellion was a jest. § 120. Only in a half-hearted
way did they lay siege to the Thracian towns. The reviving prosperity
of this once unhappy district (from Anastasius, 500, to Basil II., 1000) is well
marked by these words: 3?povplots etfaXt&rois #XXws rrj re TOV T^TTOV eiriTijdei-
6rijTi K. rfj T&V rei'xjuv diaipfoei, ry /J.TJ irpoffSoKav TroXXoD xpbvov Tro\tiuov.

2 John suffered with all the courage of an ancient Roman, and set an
example to the unnerved and weeping Leo, like Constantine to Michael V.
a short time before ; he only remarked that "To-day the Roman empire
will lose a good soldier."

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 277

stubborn who rejected all overtures are " paraded " End of

with contumely, and lose their estates. So ended Thornic:

J . . . excuses for

the most menacing disturbance in the reign of Con- the military

stantine X. We believe it is possible to extricate Party.
a more serious motive than wounded pique or per-
sonal ambition. Like all rebellions then, it was a
protest against the court and civilian government.
Adrinople was full of dissatisfied members of the
warrior caste, condemned to idleness ; of retainers
who chafed at inaction during peace, and grumbled
at the niggardly pay during a campaign. Stipend
and rations and commissariat were controlled from
the centre ; and some inexpert courtier, following the
camp, was the real dispenser of the means and
sinews of war. With the person of the monarch,
with the claims of the dynasty, these conspirators
had little quarrel. But they looked back to the
glorious days of Basil, and contrasted the luxurious
inertia of the court under the two Constantines with
his simplicity and valour. It is possible that they
refused to aid loyally in the foreign campaigns ; not
a few Roman generals have won their way to power
by withdrawing support at a critical moment. And
while there was no dearth of men and leaders in
the Western army, the year 1050 was marked by a
terrible and triple defeat at the hands of the Patzi-
naks. Either the court could not trust the captains,
or the captains would not serve the court.

§ 5. At the turn of the half-century an obscure Ludicrous
plot (/) again disturbed the sovereign's peace. A Pa^e
distinguished family united to overthrow him ; it
was detected in time, with the unfailing disclosure
of most Byzantine plots, and the principal agent, a
Nicephorus, was reduced to poverty and exile. It
is possible that this is the plot mentioned by Psellus,
when this person following in the imperial escort
found ready access to the palace, stood at the door
of the private apartments as if expecting a summons,
and was discovered with a sword prepared to strike

278 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B
Ludicrous the defenceless Constantine. The most ludicrous

vealed the wonderful leniency (or fatalism ?) of the
emperor, and the absurd insecurity of his position.
(g) Boilas, an old servant of Romanus, was gifted
with a pleasing stutter, which he took care to culti-
vate. He was the favourite of Constantine, who,
after the storms of a hard life, looked on the throne
as a welcome haven, and considered amusement to
be the sole — at least the chief — duty of the sovereign.
The constant plots published to every one the
dangerous secret that fortune was to the adven-
turous ; and, in spite of universal failure and detec-
tion, every one believed that he could guide his
intrigue to a successful issue. Boi'las, a fool only
in appearance and by design, adopted a clever ruse
for securing allies and disarming suspicion. He
approaches the discontented one by one, and either
receives a promise of aid, or artfully congratulates
the indignant loyalist that he has so well stood the
test of devotion to his own beloved master, and
promises that the emperor himself shall hear of his
steadfastness. It was no difficulty to secrete himself
in the imperial chamber ; indeed, he would seem to
have been the chamberlain at hand (TrapaKoi/uLwimevo?) ;
for a ludicrous story is told of his waking the
emperor in the middle of the night to share his joy,
because a dream had disclosed the culprit who had
Clemency of stolen his polo-ponies. He is discovered with a
' sword, strutting about the chamber, and seized it

may be at the last moment with remorse or fear.
Hurried off and questioned, he was subjected to a
nominal penalty at the express command of the
empresses, and soon restored to complete favour
and confidence. The reign of Constantine was
hastening to its close. Zoe expired in the middle
of her incense and aromatic confections, in 1052, at
the age of 74 : Scleraena had been long since dead ;
and the uxorious Constantine put in their place

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 279

a little Alan princess, hostage at the Roman court, Clemency of
whose sole attraction (in the eyes of Psellus) was a x-
her ivory complexion and her sparkling eyes. The
treasures of the empire were lavished on her country-
men, and galleys regularly plied the Euxine carrying
the wealth of Rome to the outer barbarians. She
was saluted Augusta, but the emperor dispensed with
the ceremony of a formal marriage, and on his death
she sank back into the grade of a hostage.

§ 6. The civil ministers of Constantine call for a The
word of notice. His chief adviser was Constantine ™chudes'and
Lichudes, whose son we met in connection with John.
Armenia. He was an excellent counsellor, but was
superseded by the eunuch John, of base extraction,
by an emperor whose chief distinction was his
utter disregard of the ordinary rules of promotion.
Nothing shocked the official world more than the
caprices of autocracy. The civil service (as we saw
in Lydus) expected the prince, to whom the whole
popular authority was transferred, to be guided by
the decisions of his council : he was " to ratify the
judgment of the chief men of the State " ; and, as in
the Pekinese Government to-day, an emperor hear-
ing with the ears and seeing with the eyes of his
ministers was no arbitrary ruler, but rather an
automaton, bound to subscribe with the vermilion
pencil or the purple ink of the Canicleiusy to the
views of others ; those, indeed, who fancy the
modern expedient of Constitutionalism to be a wise
novelty, being mistaken. Psellus in several passages
deplores this indifference to procedure and pre-
cedent, and actually left the service of a gracious
and amiable prince because his whims made every
post precarious. The military regents had been
content to leave much, if not all, internal manage-
ment in the hands of lay Premiers — a Bringas or
a Basil. But the emperor Basil II. (as we saw) was
a martinet in palace as well as camp, neglected the
honours and compliments due to birth and wealth,

280 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

The

ministers)
Lichudes and
John.

Death of
C. X. 1054.

Character
and scope of
Psellus, con-
temporary
chronicler.

reposed trust only in the hireling, and handed on an
Oriental method of rule, dangerous and unpopular
in a State where the nobility was still vigorous and
inured to war. The low-born John, with whom all
government rested (as with a Duke of Lerma or a
Koprili vizier), unwittingly repaid his benefactor by
bringing upon him the crowning humiliation of his
reign. This prince of the Senate and Grand Logo-
thete suggested as successor Nicephorus Bryennius,
general of the insolent Macedonian troops, while
the gout-stricken Constantine lay dying. Theodora,
hearing of this proposal, left her convent and pro-
ceeded with dignity to the palace, where she was at
once accepted as legitimate sovereign. The emperor,
hearing that his scheme was baffled, turned his face
to the wall and expired, November 30, 1054.

§ 7. The relations of Psellus and Constantine X.
resembled in no small degree those of Claudius and
Seneca ; and their respective characters were closely
akin. Psellus has to explain in his history why he,
a professed eulogist of the living prince, should
narrate evil of him when dead. He adroitly explains
and justifies his versatile pen ; and implores the "blest
departed " (Oetordrr] ^v^t], " ccelo recepta mens ") to
pardon him for daring to dispel the illusion of his
perfectness. Verbose, subtle, and unsatisfactory, he
has graver faults as a historian than this vacillation
in judgment : he has a rooted dislike to giving
names or facts, and dismisses the foreign relations
of Rome with a few pedantic words about Mysians,
Scythians, or Assyrians. We turn with relief from
his diffuse and vague account to bald but explicit
chroniclers like Theophanes ; yet it is from his pages
alone that we derive any genuine knowledge of the
atmosphere of the court. He occupied a place
midway between the civilians, to whom office was a
mere source of profit and delight, and the military
party, who still believed that patriotic duty was a
stern task. He has learnt correctly from the latter

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 281

the parrot-cry that the armies are starved and Character

imperial defences ruined by the peace-faction. But ^ fc°Pe °f

J Psellus, con-

he could give no warning or wholesome instruc- temporary

tion on government to Michael VII., the amiable chronicler.
scholar summoned by a supreme irony of fortune
to retrieve the errors or avenge the death of
Romanus IV. He is genuinely devoted to the
house of Ducas; and it was this sentiment of affec-
tion that made him hostile to Diogenes. He dis-
liked Stratioticus, and as his envoy undoubtedly
encouraged Isaac Comnenus in his defection. He
calls himself " friend of the Romans " (<pi\opu)ju.aio$)
and " patriot " ((friXoTrctTpis) ; as if from a superior
vantage-ground he regarded with discreet approval
or concern the " Roman " administration, and its
efforts for the public good. But he can scarcely
be said to identify himself closely with the State ;
and his real interests are with rhetoric or philo-
sophy, in which he was unhappily so apt a teacher
of his royal pupil. For if he has traits in common
with Seneca, he has also no little resemblance to
Pronto, urging Marcus Aurelius to the archaisms of
the lexicographer when the barbarians were already
knocking at the gate. Evidently, though he can
sympathise with the warriors in their desire for an
emperor of their own choosing, his real grievance is
with this wanton violation of strict rule in civilian
promotion. It is the theme and text of his book ;
to it he reverts again and again ; and it constitutes
his chief indictment of the methods of government.
We cannot understand who did the routine work,
or who issued the necessary orders in the various
departments of State. The permanent officials and
secretariat must have quickly usurped control, as they
do to-day in the short-lived ministries of a republic
or under the sister constitution — an autocracy.

§ 8. Though Constantine X. displays in his rela- Indolence,
tions to Armenia much tact, good sense, and good^^^
faith, the general impression of these rulers (1025- ofC. X.

282 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Indolence, 1056) is that they had little notion of the serious
Javourit^ business demanded of them. Zoe, to whom all the
ofC. X. world deferred, had no idea of ruling, and no experi-
ence in affairs (TrpayimdTcw TravraTraa-iv dSarjs). She
became childish in her later years, was subject to
sudden changes of temper — from grave to gay, from
sportive to vindictive. With a dim memory, among
her crucibles and pastilles, of her father's irascible
moods, she who had opposed the just penalty of an
ungrateful rebel, issued broadcast the savage com-
mand to deprive of sight : Constantine took care
that these commands (as speedily forgotten as issued)
were never carried out. She had the innocent vanity
of Augustus ; that the actual fire of her gaze was irre-
sistible, and those who dropped their eyes, as if
dazzled in her presence, were sure of her favour
and tangible rewards. Psellus regarded her natural
disposition as spoilt by the vulgarity of a court from
which she never issued. Bent and with trembling
hands, she had nevertheless no wrinkles on her face.
Her unique preoccupation was to be free from care
or business (jrdvTri ao-^oXo? etvai) ; her sole employ-
ment (in default of any interest in dress or female
accomplishments) lay in preparing incense for the
divine service — half voluptuous, half pietistic. As
for the easy-going prince himself (whose reign was
the zenith of Byzantine success), he had no taste
for hard work, perhaps little knowledge, and no
bodily capacity. The most part of his time he spent
in a recumbent posture, a martyr to rheumatic gout
(K\ivoTreTt]$ TO. TroXXa rjv) ; if he walked, he was sup-
ported on the shoulders of two stalwart officials.
Again and again, his attitude to the sovereign dignity
is expressed in the feelings of a storm-tossed mariner
who has made port at last, and will not be troubled
any more on earth (§§ 47, 72, 79). At last he could
breathe freely and take his ease (dvcnrveva-Tea), and
the business of government could be shifted on to
some vizier (e<p' erepw Trpoa-coTrw Ttjv TOV Kpdrov? TTOLCL

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 283

In one respect only, we are told, did Indolence,
he preserve a heroic courage in the discharge of his ^m^t^m
duties, in fulfilling the punctilious ceremonial of the ofC.X.
court. In spite of intense suffering, aggravated by
all this solemn trifling, he felt himself under a
natural and covenanted obligation to give the citi-
zens the splendid display, which had now become
the chief duty of sovereignty (a7rapa/T??Ta riva xP*a
row TroAn-aF?, § 128). Never, in all the agony which
he endured with a brave smile, did Psellus hear a
murmur or an angry word against Providence. In
personal bravery (in spite of the balcony scene in
the tragi-comedy of Tornicius), Psellus regrets that
he fell below the standard of Roman worthies of the
type of Basil II.: but he allows that he was quick-
witted, shrewd, and gifted with a good memory (0^9
ayxtvovs fjLvvfjuav). Yet he was dauntless and un-
moved in a crisis,1 and paid little heed to the omens
of nervous superstition (§ 96). He was by birth a
member of that warlike nobility which sometimes
served and sometimes excited the alarm of Basil II.,
who did not move easily among his peers, and had
good reason to distrust their independent loyalty.
Theodosius, his father, detected in some conspiracy
(eTTt TvpavviKoug atTtai? aXovs), had bequeathed this
imperial suspicion and rancour to his heir — an un-
common instance in our history of a son prejudiced
in his career by a father's fault ; for, as a rule, the
sons of traitors are treated with conspicuous fairness
and kindly consideration. He was called to no civil
office or empty distinction, so eagerly coveted by
courtiers ; although his lineage warranted the fore-
most dignities of the kingdom (yevovs eveicev . . ra

He loved pastime, witty com-

1 In Tornic's revolt, his elder sister (Helena) entreated him to fly or
take refuge in a church ; the other (Euprepia), having encouraged the
rebel, as it would appear. He uses the (Platonic) words of Socrates
bidding a cold farewell to the weeping Xantippe — ravprjdbv wp6s avrty
'Airaytru TIS airrty . . . tva. ^ rty

284 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Indolence, panions, and landscape-gardening more than befitted
faJSti^ a ruler (PwXrfopy ™fy', quotes the classical Psellus) ;
of C. X. but, as many praised his disregard of the strict rules
of promotion in the mandarinat, so there were
found apologists for these amiable and innocent
pursuits. Punishment he hated to inflict ; and in
his rare reprimands to defaulting officials he grew
red and ashamed, modifying the penalty piece by
piece until nothing remained; and even condoning
the grievous and significant offence of peculation
from the war supplies by a civilian (§ 170, e?n
K\e/uL/uLacrt TI$ aXov$ a-TparrjyiKwv SioiK^arecov). He became,
like other exalted persons, the devoted slave of a
petulant favourite, an outspoken lad from the gutter
(if we can believe the historian Psellus) ; and was
credited with the design of naming him as his suc-
cessor (§ 179). He actually appointed him chief of
the Senate (TO, Trpwra r?? yepovcrlas), or gave him rank
with the highest dignitaries ; and we are reminded
of the urchin of thirteen who followed a recent Shah
on his travels, and was pointed out as the com-
mander-in-chief of the Persian armies.

His merits § 9. It is not altogether easy to reconcile these

underrated. accounts of the emperor with the general character
of his reign ; and I am strongly inclined to think
that his merits and his industry have been under-
rated. While titular dignity may have been lavishly
distributed, there is no proof that the business of the
empire suffered by neglect or malversation. Fickle
in the choice or retention of his intimate ministers,
Constantine X. was nevertheless well served, and the
retirement of Psellus and his apprehensive friends
may not have been a serious loss to the State. We
cannot forget that in an age when the wildest im-
pulse, grossest ignorance, and vaguest policy reigned
supreme elsewhere, the Byzantine ruler, fixed and
imperturbable against foreign rumour or domestic
tumult, maintained his calmness and humanity. Ex-
cept Tornicius, no pretender represented the solid

CH. x THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1025-1056) 285

good sense and patriotism of the military caste ; and Bis merits
discontent was limited to personal envy or to that underrated-
general opinion that an emperor should be first and
foremost a soldier (§§ 104, 109). Nor is it clear that
Constantine can be accused of wanton and thriftless
waste in the public finance ; the charge is levelled
indiscriminately at all pacific princes, and the pas-
times and boy or girl favourite of the emperor might
be somewhat costly or exacting. The " scandalous
chronicle " of the palace would make him out an
impossible dotard, surrounded and fawned on or
hopelessly hoaxed by a host of low-born jesters.
Yet Constantine X. was still the trusted arbiter in
the last resort, the unfailing friend of the falsely
accused ; and he cannot be blamed if, while the vast
machine of government moved on of itself, he took
innocent diversion and reserved the initiative or the
calm dignity of a sovereign for moments of real
crisis. The tranquillity of Theodora's reign and the
early quiet of Michael VI. may prove that during his
rule of twelve and a half years the Roman common-
wealth suffered nothing to its detriment from this
most amiable and cheerful of its rulers. At most
we must say (as we can say of all the Constantines
in the eleventh century) that he lived before his time.
His conception of office was purely civilian ; war
was a preventable episode, or a regrettable expedient.
Affable (e/c/cef/ueVo? iraa-iv) and accessible, giving leave
of absence to his chamberlains and guardsmen
(/careui/a^oi/Te?), he answered the remonstrances of
his friends by saying that he was in the hands and
under the care of a Higher Power, and needed no
human protection. From the more visible guardian-
ship of his people's love he was unhappily debarred.
Loyalty (in our modern sense unknown) expended
itself in a peculiar form in a jealous watch over
the legitimate claims of the two princesses : there
was nothing left over for the occasional and transient
partners of Zoe. If we remember that he was a

286 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. B

His merits coeval of Hildebrand and of William the Conqueror,
underrated. \'lv'mg alongside of feudal anarchy and misrule in
Western Europe and the Turkish forays of the Eastern
border, we cannot fail to recognise with astonishment
the modern character, proclivities, and policy of this
ruler. Behind the mere lover of pleasure, ironically
making light of the business of a monarch, there
was another man hidden, a man of firm and daunt-
less purpose, steadfast clemency, and straightforward
dealing ; and if, in common with other critics, we
place in his days the culminating point of Roman
power, wealth, and territory, we cannot deny some
share in this achievement to Constantine X.

DIVISION C

GRADUAL DISPLACEMENT OF THE CIVIL
MONARCHY BY FEUDALISM

CHAPTER XI
CONFLICT OF THE TWO ORDERS

A. THE MILITARY PROTEST AND THE COUNTER-
REVOLUTION : THE PEACE - PARTY AND THE
SOLDIERS (COMNENUS AND DIOGENES), 1057-
1067

§ 1. THE sole reign of Irene (797-801) had been Theodora and
the palmy days of eunuch-influence. The regencies fcfeafawofa
of Theodora II. (842) and of Zoe (911) had not faction).
rested on their exclusive support ; and Theophano
(963) hastened into a second marriage with a member
of the warrior-class. But Theodora III. brought into
the palace the arts and virtues of a convent. Her
claims to the throne, hallowed by the vicissitudes and
afflictions of nearly thirty years, were recognised by
all ; no conspiracies disturbed her reign ; and her
household servants disposed of the vast patronage
of the empire. But it is clear that she remained the
mistress, and perhaps no female sovereign until Queen
Victoria exerted at an advanced age a blending so
judicious of administrative ability and moral ex-
cellence. When, in spite of the flattering promises
of the soothsayer and the secret conviction of the
empress, her health began to fail unmistakably, the
palace-cabal of faithful servants (but indifferent states-
men) reasserted itself. They pressed on Theodora the

287

288 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Theodora and name of Michael Stratioticus, and perhaps hoped by
fcre^reofa the bellicose surname to delude the warriors into
faction). ' a belief that at length they had a prince of their
own. But if Michael had ever served in Western or
Eastern armies, history is silent as to his prowess
or achievements ; and his accession was the high-
water mark of the pacifists. He was bound by a
solemn agreement to do nothing in public affairs
without the full consent of this informal council of
ministers ; and with an aged dotard, the cabal hoped
for an indefinite continuance of power. The most
liberal of Roman malcontents in early imperial days
would have been stupefied at this condition, which
fettered monarchy and rendered it harmless or super-
fluous— the mere disguise of a secret committee.
At least, Caesar was elected to act and to assume
responsibility. He never became, until the accession
of Michael VI., the creature of a faction. The
tradition of imperial industry was still potent :
Michael had to discover some outlet for his faded
energy ; and while an anonymous faction dispensed
the money and honours of the realm (apxaipea-ia), the
emperor superintended the cleansing of the pretor's
tribunal and issued "ukases," like Emperor Paul of
Russia, to control the wearing of the hair and the
attire of his subjects. I cannot conceive that it was
the prince who replaced simple "intendants" for
the usual dignified senators in the management of
the treasury : it seems clear that the peace-faction
were here at work. The Senate was still a venerable
and important institution ; its members might be
imperial nominees, but the entire body had a credit-
able history for the past and preserved the traditions
of an earlier day. But the Yildiz Kiosk was pitted
against the Sublime Porte ; and unknown menials
usurped the power of responsible statesmen. To
such a decree (rivalling the autocratic edicts of Basil
and Leo VI.) Michael subscribed his name ; but he
was not its author. The sovereign was a slave, and

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 289

in vain he lavished gifts and doles on the Senate Theodora and

and people. He was despised and distrusted : and Michael VI.

. (creature of a

the discontented were prepared to rally round the faction).

most unlikely candidate for the throne. But the
revolt of Theodosius Monomachus was a ridiculous
fiasco. Claiming a hereditary interest in the purple,
which his cousin had worn for twelve years, he
marched to the palace with a few followers, crying
out that he had been defrauded of his rights. He
opened the prisons, as did the conspirators against
Justinian II. (695) ; and finds his motley crew
opposed by the Varangians and marines, whom the
eunuchs had hastily armed. Unable to force an
entrance, he betakes himself to St. Sophia, hoping
that patriarch and people will recognise in him their
lawful champion. Instead, the gates are shut against
the disorderly rabble ; and the pretender, deserted
and at last a captive, lightly expiates his folly as
an exile to Pergamus, one of the " dead cities " of
the empire.

§ 2. The next conspiracy was neither contemptible The Warriors
nor unjustified: and we shall bestow some detail Sp£^nd
upon the successful protest of the military faction Premier.
which transferred the sceptre to the Comneni from
Colonea, and the distant limits of Lesser Asia.
Psellus has left us a vague but precious account
of a movement in which he played no inconsiderable
share : and the curious may be referred to his text.1
Michael VI. had shown a tactless parsimony in
rewarding the warriors at the Easter Doles, 1059.
This solemn ceremony of imperial gifts had been
well described and perhaps derided by Luitprand of
Cremona a century before ; the emperor was still the
unique fount of honour and of recompense. When
the turn of the military leaders came, Michael was

1 This entire period, with the account of Psellus, has been admirably
summarised by Professor Bury in the English Historical Review. It is
almost an impertinence to treat again of the events which he has described
so vividly and estimated with such judgment.

VOL. II. T

290 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

The Warriors
slighted by
Prince and
Premier :

Retire to
Asia Minor
(1057).

Hasty
insurgence
and failure of
Bryennius.

profuse in compliments : Comnenus and Catacalon
(lately recalled from the duchy of Antioch) were
singled out for conspicuous praise ; and the rise
of the latter from obscurity through sheer personal
merit was pronounced especially gratifying to the
democratic emperor. But the coveted distinction of
TrpoeSpos was refused ; and neither pittance nor title
soothed their vanity. The faction, headed by these two
men, illustrious and plebeian, now betake themselves
to the chief minister, or head of the palace-clique,
Leo Strabospondyles. They could not believe that
his Majesty's slight was intentional ; it was surely his
purpose to show his appreciation of their services.
It was both ungrateful and unwise to decorate the
luxurious and pampered clerks of the bureaux and
neglect the brave defenders of their country who faced
death for the good of all ? Again (and this time by
a detested minister) the plaintiffs were dismissed with
contumely ; and the eunuch echoes his master's
taunts, "What have you done at Antioch except
pillage and oppress ? " The leaders meet in St. Sophia,
and bind themselves by a great oath not to rest until
the insult has been avenged. Catacalon, the veteran
and the spokesman, is offered the crown ; but he
refuses, and like Sallustius of old on the death of
Julian, promises to be the faithful servant of their
choice. In the end he suggests Isaac Comnenus ;
" for," he said, tl it needs a noble to command nobles."
All get leave of absence from the willing emperor
and retire to their estates in Cappadocia, those vast
domains which, whether occupied by palace-eunuchs
like Basil (976) or by feudal lords, equally excited
the envy and suspicion of the central government.
As a last condition, Catacalon had insisted that
Nicephorus Bryennius should be made privy to the
plot.

§ 3. Nicephorus Bryennius, the nominee displaced
by the prompt action of Theodora in 1054, had
been despatched by Constantine X. with the famous

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 291

" Macedonian " troops to fight the Turks ; for a pre- Hasty
diction was going round that only Macedon could in8%r/e™*€ of
overthrow the East. But, on his patron's death, he Bryennius.
had brought back his turbulent forces to Chrysopolis
without orders ; and Theodora, justly suspecting his
motive after the trouble of Tornic a few years before,
had cashiered and exiled the general. Michael VI.
restored him to his command, and sent him with
these same Macedonians to act against Samukh. On
a modest demand for the restitution of his confiscated
estate, the emperor replied with a homely proverb,
" That one did not pay the workman until the article
was delivered." Such was his imprudent use of
satire, a dangerous as well as a contemptible weapon
in the hands of authority. With him to report upon
his conduct was sent John Opsaras, a eunuch of the
palace, with the army-chest. We have a repetition of
the behaviour of Romanus Lecapenus to a similar
spy. Bryennius demands payment for his men on
a higher scale than that sanctioned by the civilian
war-ministry. When Opsaras refuses, he seizes him
by the hair, violently maltreats and drags to his tent
a prisoner, dividing the contents of the war-chest
with the troops. Lycanthus, governor of the pro-
vince (Lycaonia and Pisidia), advances to avenge this
outrage, sets Opsaras free, blinds Bryennius and sends
him to the emperor, with the story of his crime.
Alarmed at this unexpected blow, the chief officers
advance from their several homes to the strong
fortress of Castamouni, the abode of Isaac. With
gentle violence in the dead of night they hurry him
away to the plain of Gunaria, where on the morning
of June 8, 1057, he is saluted emperor, like any
Probus or Diocletian of old, by the assembled troops,
rapidly recruiting from the soldier-settlers of the
surrounding district. Catacalon did not at once join
the rebels, and caused them no slight misgiving by
his silence. Indeed, he found himself in a difficult
place ; expecting an earlier movement on the part of

292

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Hasty

Bryennius.

Catacalon
joins

Comnenian
mutineers.

Isaac, he had written a daring epistle to the Logothete
of the Course, Nicetas Xylinitas, in which he had
openly hinted at insurrection. When the news of
Isaac's " pronunciamento " was confirmed, Catacalon
hesitated no longer. He raised 1000 men, kinsmen,
vassals or retainers, and servants ; and adroitly
counterfeits an imperial order appointing Nicopolis
as the rendezvous of all the regiments of the district
for a new campaign against Samukh. This, it is only
fair to remark, is a single incident of questionable
honesty in a period to which is usually ascribed
the bad faith, cowardice, and studied hypocrisy of
the Greekling. The troops assemble, Russian and
Frank, and the garrison of the themes Chaldia and
Colonea (birthplace of the pretender). At daybreak
Catacalon collects the officers, and gives them a
simple choice between death and adhesion to the
cause.

§ 4. At the head of these exultant and unanimous
troops, Catacalon advances to meet Isaac. He in
turn, overjoyed at this welcome proffer, leaves his
wife and children with his brother John in the castle
of Pemolissus (on the Halys), passes the Sangarius,
and sets his face towards Nice. Michael VI., in the
usual jealous fashion of a dual control by civilian
and soldier, sent against them Aaron (Isaac's own
brother-in-law) and the eunuch Theodore, who march
to Nicomedia and encamp at the foot of Mount
Sophon. Meantime Isaac has entered Nice. It is
difficult to induce the two armies to adopt a resolute
or hostile air. They fraternise and discuss the position
amicably ; nor are the Asiatic forces behindhand in
proffering advice to quit the party of an aged fool,
slave of his menials, and tyrant only of his brave
captains. At last a pageant fray or tournament was
prepared ; and in the battle duly set forth on each
side with centre and wings, according to the invariable
custom, Romanus Sclerus is routed and captured by
the Imperialists, Aaron and Lycanthus ; Isaac (in the

CH. XT THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 293

centre) was turned to flight, and only Catacalon Catacalon

retrieved the cause of the rebels, by putting tojSS**

~ t Oomneman

rout Basil 1 apyaviwrw, noblest of the " Macedonian " mutineers.

phalanx, while aiding discomfited comrades. Radulf,
a Norse mercenary, fought in single combat with a
future emperor, Nicephorus Phocas (Botaneiates),
and the perfectly tempered casque of the latter
turned the mace and numbed the arm of the Latin.
War was still somewhat of a " pastime," as in the
revolt of Tornic ; and but few of the opposing
forces were left dead on the field. Revolutions in
the Byzantine period were rarely murderous, and a
change of throne or dynasty demanded few victims.
The Comnenians enter Nicomedia, and are met by
envoys from Michael, Constantine Lichudes and Futile
Psellus. The proposals would have revived the old negotiations

.. r ,. rj.i- i with M. VI.

and perilous expedient of the regency, or perhaps gone
back to the ideal of Diocletian. A youthful Caesar
was to be adopted by an aged and childless prince,
the one for the camp, the other for the palace.
Isaac accepted the terms, stipulating (i) That
Michael should crown no one else: (2) that the
honours bestowed on his companions should be
confirmed : (3) that he should enjoy the patronage
in certain minor appointments : (4) that Strabo-
spondyles should be dismissed. To this Michael
agreed, and Leo was sent from the palace to his
clerical duties. Everything looked favourable for
an amicable compromise. But behind the scenes
strange intrigues were moving. Catacalon opposed
any concession : and the envoys themselves betrayed
their master's cause by urging the mutineers to
extreme measures. And the emperor, while pro-
mising in public to adopt Isaac as his colleague and
heir, was at the very moment exacting a terrible oath
from the senators never to acknowledge him as such.
The patriarch Michael Cerularius absolved these
reluctant jurors from their word, and promised the
emperor a heavenly, in exchange for an earthly

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

Futile

negotiations
withM. VL

Triumph of
the Comneni
origin of the
family.

crown.1 They proclaim the Comnenus emperor.
Michael VL, finding resistance fruitless, retired with
quiet dignity to his own house and survived his
downfall two full years unmolested.

§ 5. In this great military revolution there was
a singular absence of Greek chicanery or refined
cruelty. In Michael VI. alone was there double-
dealing ; and the envoys were no doubt justified in
urging the refusal of the very measures they brought
for acceptance. There was no violence, no outrage,
no pursuit of the downfallen ; and power was trans-
ferred from one party to its rival without leaving
behind so much as the rancour and ill-feeling of
a General Election. The new family came from
Colonea (o KoA«j/e/a$ej/), and afford a good type of
that unhellenic culture, pious, puritan, and warlike,
which hailed from the East and could be referred
to no indigenous source. It is true that a harmless
fable brought over their ancestors with the first
Constantine, who stood to the Byzantine pedigree-
makers as our own William the Conqueror, a con-
venient and venerable fiction. We hear nothing of
the family until the days of the prefect of the East under
Basil II., and the name of the village Comne betrays
its feudal and rustic associations. His children,
Isaac and John, were brought up under the eyes and
by the care of the emperor ; partly in the convent
of Studium, partly in his own court, not less austere,
like noble pages in an early Teutonic period or in later
chivalry. He chose their wives, and married Isaac to
Catherine, daughter of Samuel, the (Armenian ?) king
of Bulgaria, and John to Anne, daughter of Alexius
Charon, Kareiravw in Italy, and a Dalassene on the
mother's side (his eight children survived him,
destined to fill the highest places in the Roman world

1 Lebeau's comment is delightful, and will not bear translation :
" L'e"change etait avantageux, si le patriarche en cut ete le maitre." It is
interesting to contrast the tone of Gibbon's inevitable quip on the same
point : " An exchange, however, which the priest on his own account
would probably have declined."

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 295

and to transform its institutions). This house ruled, Triumph of

sustaining or despoiling the commonwealth, for a^<7omnem:

... . . origin of the

hundred years; and the brief pnncipate of Isaac family.

(1057-1059), like that of Claudius Gothicus (268-
270), was an augury or foretaste of the longer
honours awaiting his kinsmen. For the abdication
of Isaac interrupted the line ; and in twenty-two
years of loss and decay the empire learnt to regret
the Comnenians. Had Isaac's brother succeeded
and received the support (still indispensable) of the
civil officials, had a continuous policy and a tactful
demeanour reconciled the warrior and the bureau-
crat, the history of the East might have run on
different lines. It was scarcely the fault of the
Comneni that by 1081 around them the tradi-
tions and institutions of Rome lay in ruins, and
that a vigorous and not seldom oppressive pre-
dominance of a feudal clan was the only possible
government.

§ 6. The causes of Isaac's comparative failure, strong
brief reign, and early retirement are still enveloped ^ler^ion to
in obscurity : it may be that ill-health is quite j^wi. : his
sufficient to explain the sudden collapse of the abdication.
warrior-policy. Yet it appears that the dead-weight
of a stubborn bureaucratic opposition, outwardly
deferential, completely thwarted all reforming enter-
prise, and paralysed the zealous arm by the spiteful
indolence of the permanent official. Isaac at the
outset had to propitiate the Church ; he abandoned
two valuable pieces of preferment to the patriarch,
the ceconomus and the treasurer of the Great Church,
saying, "That the Church should choose its own
ministers." The doles, gifts, and pensions of Michael
VI. had been wasteful and injudicious; they had
been squandered upon laity and churchmen, while the
military servants of the State had been starved or
insulted. These he endeavoured to revoke without
exciting undue resentment, and found the task be-
yond him. Himself setting a fine example of the

296 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Strong simple life, he excited the violent hatred of the clerics

clerical f or suggesting an inquiry into the revenues of church

opposition to . « «

Isaac!.: his and convent. He might have appeased the enmity

abdication. of the ministerial world ; but he committed the in-
expiable offence in the eyes of a devout hierarchy.
The Greek Church never forgave him ; Cerularius
the patriarch sets up all the well-known pretensions
of sacerdotal sovereignty, which was so soon to kindle
the flames of civil war in Western Europe. He
assumed the purple buskins ; pronounced the ad-
vantage to lie with the sacerdotium in the delicate
weighing of the two powers, not with the imperium;
and threatened, quite in the style of Hildebrand, that
he who bestowed the crown could also take it
away. Isaac deposed and confined him ; and while
awaiting the approval of a synod, he was both re-
lieved and distressed by Michael's opportune death.
Lichudes succeeded, the old minister of Constantine
X., who had received as a solace for his feelings the
titles irpoeSpos, protovestiaire, and aconomus at the
Manganese convent. Isaac (it must be confessed)
employed a ruse to secure the surrender of certain
documents or charters of monastic immunity. The
emperor, true to the Protestant spirit which existed
even in the most devout princes since the Isaurians,
desired to bring these petty autonomies within the
pale of the common law ; and to abolish the exempt
jurisdictions or spiritual courts, which made little re-
publics of these foundations. He prevailed on the
oeconomus to surrender these privileges, by threats of a
synodal inquiry into some mythical irregularities in
the life of the Patriarch-Designate ; and Lichudes
complied. It is impossible not to remark here the
complete resemblance of East and West in the chief
social features and problems. There is the same
conflict between the secular and the clerical power ;
the same proud menace from the unarmed priest,
strong only in conviction. But in the East (a more
highly developed community) there was a third factor

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 297

in the duel of the knight and the priest, — the civil
servant.1

§ 7. We do not know why Isaac Comnenus Civilian
passed over his brother's claims in naming his ^dominant
successor : it is clear, however, that he did so, and under C. XL
that Constantine Dux or Ducas, an old companion-
in-arms, was appointed as a compromise, to satisfy
the court-party without estranging the Warriors.
After the triumph of the federate or feudal party in
1057, Isaac, now emperor, had naturally become a
convert to centralism and autocracy. He had gently
disembarrassed himself of his inconvenient allies ; and
his successor was still more obviously annexed by
the official ring. The curious may consult the learned
account of the condition of the empire by C. Neu-
mann ; and it needs but little direct proof to convince
us that the years 1059-1067 witnessed a steady
civilian reaction.2 Ducas took pains to conciliate

1 Finlay's comment upon the success of the Comnenians (1057) is
curious, and a good indication of the confusion of his judgment on matters
Byzantine : " Perhaps no man then living perceived that this event was
destined to change the whole system of government, destroy the fabric
of the central administration, deliver up the provinces of Asia an easy
conquest to the Seljuk Turks, and the capital a prey to a band of Crusa-
ders." Let any one read Psellus' account of the policy and purposes of
the princes after Basil (Isaac, §§ 51-57), and in spite of the execrable
style and redundant or conflicting metaphors, he will recognise the
real culprits, — the civilians, and the sole cause of the disunion which
thwarted all active good service to the State, in the envy of the two
factions. It would be unfair to confound the Comneni (with their
modesty and public spirit, their heroic struggles against fortune, their
untiring energy) with any vulgar feudal individualist who wrecked a
throne, and won a power which he did not know how to exercise. It
was not their fault that Roman tradition was extinct, when at last all
opposition to the military empire disappeared (1081); and so far from
inviting the invaders of East and West, Seljuks or Latins, the Comneni
alone kept out the former and managed the latter. The Angeli returned
to a corrupt peace and sloth, and the consequence was the collapse of
1204. The sporadic revivals of the empire, and the autumnal radiance of
the Palasologi, were won by a return to the methods of the Comneni.

2 From the personal knowledge and graphic account of Psellus we
gather: (i) Pacific policy of the emperor (§ 17, eaury /^py crujU/36i;Xy
wepl TO. irpaicTta xp^vo^ ; depending on his own judgment he some-
times missed his aim) : rb yovv pov\6fj.ei>ov airry fy /AT? TroX^tois rd, irepl
T&V tdv&v diarldeffdat dXX& ocipwc dTO<rToXcus . . . Sveiv ft'e/ca, tva H'ffTf

298 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY, OF DIV. c

Civilian the "politicals/' discoursed with eloquence upon

lprJdlminant the duties of a ruler and the beauty of justice,
under c. XI. professed that the crown of rhetoric was of far
higher value in his eyes than the crown of empire ;
and made Constantine Psellus the tutor of his sons.
There is no conclusive reason against his authentic
connection with the earlier family of Ducas ; did not
a son, Nicolas, escape from the ill-fated venture of
Constantine Ducas in 912 ? But he had abandoned
the traditions and lost the spirit of his ancestors.

TO. ir\clu Karava\lffKot rots or/xmwrats K. avrbs Siaywyty ty
Psellus (§ 1 8) rightly rebukes this policy, but his own Chinese contempt
and ignorance of the foreigner is also to blame ; he calls them MIATOI and
TpJjSaXXoi, as if he were Demosthenes. (2) Is popular with the agricul-
tural interest: (§ 16) oi 8' tirl TUV dypwv ol rb trplv /ojSe rbv pavCKctovTa.
r}5et<rai> /cct0a/>ws avrq tvriTtvi$ov, and benefited by kindly words and still
kindlier deeds. Indeed, he had been a countryman all his life on his
ancestral estate; (§ 6) iv dypois dc&yu/te ret iro\\d K. irepl TTJI> irarpyav
/SwXoj' 4irpay/j.aT€^€TO. (3) Chief aim to spread equality and equity ;
(§2) irp&TOV riderai cnroiJSacr/Aa fobTijra, K. evvofttav Kara<r/cei;d<rcu ; and
fill by fair means the exhausted treasury : (§3) pa<n\elav tv <rrev$ . . .
bp&v irdvTuv . . . -XPW&TUV ££ai'T\'r}6tt>T<i)v, xp^ario-T^s pfoos tyfrero
(that is, not oppressive) ; he left the treasury half-full. (4) Obliterates the
old hard-and-fast distinction between political and senatorial classes;
(§15) sending every one away honoured, leaving none neglected : ot> TWV iv
rAet, oi> TU>V per' ^KeLvovs et)0i>s, oti rdv irfypuQi, dXX' 0^5^ ruv

atpei yap K. roiyrots (? removes in favour of them) rods T&V dJ-iw/
TOV HO\ITIKOV yfrovs K. TOV Siry/cX^rt/coO,
K. <rvvdirT€i TO SiearcDs. We wish Psellus would give
up metaphors and Scripture allusions and confine himself to facts ; there are
not many other traces of the distinction of department of which he speaks ;
and it is clear that in many passages where civil (TroX.) and military in-
terests are contrasted, TroXtr. certainly includes, broadly, all who were not
in the army -service. See in this very chapter (§7) the following sum-
mary of the Military Revolt of 1057 : tv detvy TU>V ^rpariuTuv iroiov^vuv,
el afrrol /*&> rbv itirtp TUV 6\wv dyuva VTTOO^OLVTO K. rots fftipaffiv birtp T^S
dpxfy Kivdweijotev, Kardpxoi 5£ Tobruv tv rats dpxaipe<rials TOV KpdTovs (?>.,
the empire) ^ Sj^yAcXi/ros ret roXXct, fJLijStv TUV Kivotvuv iTraiffdo^vr). (5)
His secret relations to Isaac : it would appear (§ 6-14) that Constantine
was early marked out for the throne, was a favourite with the conspirators
in 1057, yielded not unwillingly to Isaac, but received some promise
in stipulation, which was ill-kept ; received again during Isaac's illness
promise of the succession, was again eluded on a partial recovery, owed
to the boldness of Psellus the investiture with imperial insignia, and
succeeded rather in spite of the moribund emperor than owing to his
influence (§ 13, rb irav diroyvofo TOV re (3a<ri\evoi>Ta ewpaK&s . . . eddfo

T&V &VaKT6pUV d0/OTClT<U.)

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 299

He frittered the imperial dignity by interest in petty Civilian

detail, by neglect of the wider outlook; by ignorance W*"**

] &. . ' J & predominant'

of the graver issues. His industry and watchfulness under C. XI.

(for he spared no pains) seemed to degenerate into
pettiness and pedantry. He examined minutely into
the conduct of the civic magistrates, sat as assessor
with the judges, and interfered in the ordinary course
of justice with the well-meaning but vicious influence
of an autocrat. He usurped the functions of his Misplaced

lieutenants, and failed to find a post or duties of his e™rw and

chivalry.
own. Courting his favour, the warriors become

barristers, and plead instead of fighting. Corrupted
by his own virtues he overrode the law, made per-
sonal exceptions and immunities under cover of
equity, unconsciously altered the whole tenor of the
code, and introduced a weak and amiable arbitrari-
ness into the most steadfast institution of the empire.
Liberal to the monks, he kept the soldiers on short
rations, disbanded troops to avoid expense, made
employment venal, and opened all office without
reserve or distinction to senators and commonalty
alike. Like Justinian, he preferred to purchase peace
from a barbarian foe than to raise up a possible
competitor at home at the head of a victorious
army : when Belgrade was captured, when the raids
of the Uzes spread unwonted desolation and havoc,
he ransomed Nicephorus Botaneiates (the future em-
peror) and Basil 'ATTOKOITOS, and refused to send an
army against the invaders. The forces were indeed
in a pitiable plight : captains were ignorant, troops
ill-disciplined and badly equipped, peculation on the
part of the ubiquitous civilian treasurers and as-
sessors systematic. Personally brave, he conceived
the astonishing design of marching against the Uzes
with a knightly retinue of 150 "paladins." This
project, quite in keeping with the romantic and
chivalrous spirit of the time, had an unexpected
success. The barbarians took to flight (1065), and
cease to be a menace to the empire for the future.

300 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Misplaced
energy and
chivalry.

Emperors'
brothers
during Xlth
century: the
two Johns.

Many settle as submissive subjects in those districts
of Macedonia which seemed to open inexhaustible ex-
panses to the barbarian colonist. (Civilised and faith-
ful in the imperial service, their descendants fought for
Rome and attained high office. Other branches of the
now scattered family settled, under the vague name of
Turkmans, in Armenia ; and others again in Mol-
davia and the country north of the Danube.) Con-
stantine XI. showed the usual clemency to forlorn
and detected conspirators. Even the city prefect
was implicated in a plot to drown the emperor when
passing to the Manganese convent by galley on St.
George's Day ; and retribution stopped at the con-
fiscation of estates. Though simple and unostenta-
tious in personal life and habits, and curtailing in
some degree the costly waste of the court, Constan-
tine got the name of avarice, and was accused, even
by well-wishers, of a dangerous parsimony in the
matter of national defence.

§ 8. The real business of government in the
eleventh century rested largely with the brothers of the
sovereign. John the Paphlagonian, President of the
Foundling Hospital, had been the effective minister
from 1030-1041, and was only expelled by his
nephew's ungrateful folly. The brother of Isaac
Comnenus, sharing with Catacalon the high titular
dignity of Curopalat, would seem to have brought into
a now empty office some genuine duties. The Caesar,
John Ducas, brother of Constantine XI., was for
twenty years the moving spirit and the final arbiter
in the curious developments which ended in the
Comnenian victory (1060-1081). When Constan-
tine XL (like most Byzantine princes in this eleventh
century) fell rapidly into declining health, he com-
mended his wife and the young Augusti to his
brother's care ; bidding her follow his advice in
everything, and his sons to obey him as a father.
Eudocia Macrembolitissa, without any technical ex-
clusion of her sons, assumed the sovereignty and

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1067) 301

reigned alone, perhaps the fourth time in this period Emperors
(since Basil's death) that one or two princesses had Bothers

• j AI^ u i_ during Xlth

been recognised as regnant. Although bound by a century: the

promise to the defunct prince not to contract a two Johns.

second marriage, Eudocia was expected by the

Byzantine world to follow the example of Theo-

phano and of Zoe. Intrigues were set on foot to

find a suitable match. One favourite was Nice-

phorus Botaneiates, lately arrived in the capital with

a remnant of his troops and a few foreign auxiliaries

attached to him by the feudal tie of personal loyalty ;

his main force having disbanded in Armenia, no

doubt in protest against arrears of pay and consistent

neglect on the part of the home government. The

choice of the empress fell on an unexpected head,

and the previous career of Romanus Diogenes had

given the public no warrant that he would attain the

chief place by marriage and legitimate association.

His father had been convicted of treason, and owed Disgrace and

his death to his own ungovernable temper. Not a ^dden

, • elevation of

few Byzantine rulers crept up the ladder of pro- Diogenes

motion in spite of such a family history ; and Romanus (1067).
found no hindrance to advancement. Appointed
patrician and Duke of Sardica, he had applied to
Constantine XI. for the titular office of Protovestiaire,
which would otherwise appear an uncongenial post
for a member of the militant faction. Ducas replied
with unusual brevity, " Deserve it"; and Romanus
achieved no little success against the Patzinaks.
The commission of Master of the Wardrobe was duly
sent ; and Ducas with unwise candour or spitefulness
remarked that he owed it to his own right hand, and
not to the imperial favour. Sullen, but not yet
openly mutinous, Romanus waited for the demise of
Constantine XI. ; and was on the event at once sus-
pected by the court-party of designs against an
empress-regent and three infants. He was sum-
moned to the capital, and the charge duly laid and
supported by certain proof. Yet his situation excited

302 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Disgrace and
sudden
elevation of

(1067).

a general sympathy ; and the empress, warming
towards a gallant soldier, recommended the justices
to reconsider their verdict and their sentence. How-
ever much we may deplore the constant interference
of the Roman sovereign in the course of ordinary
justice, we cannot deny that such intervention was
universally employed on the side of mercy. In the
light of further evidence and the obvious partiality of
the empress, Romanus was acquitted ; but despatched
to his Cappadocian estates to muse awhile on the
vicissitudes of fortune and the caprices of the law.
On his way thither a messenger recalled him to
receive the honours of magister militum and crrparriy6<s.
Meantime, Eudocia has got from the patriarch Xiphi-
linus the solemn document in which at her husband's
express desire she had abjured second nuptials ;
and it is stated that the credulous prelate was led to
believe that the favoured candidate was to be his
own brother Bardas. The aged monk wasted much
valuable time in reading the dissolute Bardas the
wholesome lessons of restraint in his new dignity : the
court-party were still pressing the claims of Botaneiates
by obscure suggestion ; when Eudocia put an end
to all surmise by calling Romanus to the palace and
announcing her marriage.

Novel

and Latin
soldiers of
fortune.

B. THE MILITARY REGENCY AND THE C^SAR JOHN :
BEGINNINGS OF LATIN INTERVENTION : THE
MISRULE OF NICEPHORITZES (1067-1078)

§ 1. The ambitious had to reckon with a new
factor, the loyalty of the palace-guard, the Varangians.
They were devoted to the family of Ducas, and we
may well suppose that they had not been allowed to
suffer from the straitened resources of the military
chest or the thrift of the war-office. They take up
arms for the young Augusti, and threaten to burn
the palace. Eudocia reasons with the modest and
dutiful Michael, who had been awakened by his

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 303

mother and Psellus on the eve of the marriage to Novel
hear the startling news. She convinces him of the
need of a regent to guard the rights of legitimate and Latin
innocence, and promises that when they are of full soldiers of
age their stepfather will retire. Michael VII. fof
appeased the tumult, and the Varangians (who were
never the same menace as the Turkish mercenaries
in Bagdad) returned to their duty. The military
party rallied round the new emperor ; and the five
sons of the Curopalat John Comnenus, recently dead,
pressed (when their age allowed) into the service of
a vigorous captain. Romanus IV. lost no time in
setting the dilapidated machinery of the army in
motion. His levies comprised a motley assemblage
of Macedonians, Bulgars, and Cappadocians. All
Phrygia was placed under requisition for men and
supplies. The Uzes, recent enemies of the empire,
joined the standard ; Norse bands under Crispin ;
and Varangians from the palace-guard, now recon-
ciled to their new master. Into the early successes
and campaigns of Diogenes we need not enter ; but
we cannot dismiss without notice the novel ele-
ment in the situation, the Norse condottieri. Herve,
Radulph (or Randolph), Gosselin, and later Russell
of Balliol, must occupy the attention of the historian ;
forerunners of the Latin movement eastwards, which
resulted in the Latin kingdom and counties of the
twelfth century, and impartially spent itself against
the Christian empire in 1204. Crispin belonged,
it was said, to the ancient corsair-family of the
Grimaldis of Monaco ; but his fathers had settled in
Normandy under Duke Rollo, and had learnt some-
thing of the roving life of these turbulent vassals of
France. He became an adventurer and a soldier of
fortune, and entered the service of the empire with
his men, whether kinsmen or retainers. Romanus IV.
sent him into Asia ; but receiving irregular pay, he
began to live by the plunder of citizens and tax-
gatherers. He defeated the Bulgar prince Samuel

304 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Novel
influences :
Varangians
and Latin
soldiers of
fortune.

Civilian
reaction after
defeat of
Manzikert.

Alusianus (whose sister Diogenes had married), and
the Turks sent against him by the questionable
policy of the time. It was but a half-hearted
mutiny ; and neither master nor servant was in
earnest. Crispin demanded, and Romanus granted, a
full amnesty ; but on his recall the court-whispers
again convince the emperor of his treason and he is
sent into captivity at Abydos. The Frank colony
at Manzikert revolts at this cold treatment, and
pillages Mesopotamia. Meantime the Turkish war
runs its course ; Iconium is ravaged in 1069, Colossae
(Khonae) in 1070 ; and after the great defeat at
Manzikert (where the faint assistance of doubtful
friends compromised the day) a treaty was drawn
up of amity and alliance, subject to a ransom for
the imperial captive and a yearly tribute or a
subsidy of 360,000 pieces of gold.

§ £. The subsequent proceedings to the death of
Romanus IV. are obscure and perhaps discreditable ;
but it is not easy to single out any one actor for
censure. In the alarming rumours which reached
the capital, Romanus was reported dead, or given
up for lost. The Caesar John hurried home from
the pleasures of the Bithynian chace, to guard the
claims of his nephews and retrieve the error of the
fatal marriage. At first the proposal embodied the
joint-rule of Eudocia and her son ; the rights of
Andronicus I. and Constantine XII. being tacitly set
aside. Meantime, Romanus was on the march, to
vindicate his prerogative : this, unlike Regulus of
old (capitis minor in virtue of his capitulation), he did
not consider abrogated. The Caesar exacted an oath
from the guard never to acknowledge Diogenes ;
and these proclaiming Michael VII. sole emperor,
rush to the apartments of the empress with loud
and angry cries. Eudocia, hiding in a cavern, was
rescued by the Caesar, but forced to retire to a
convent, where she survived perhaps until the arrival
of the earliest Latin pilgrims. Constantine (the

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 305

Caesar's son) was sent in command against Romanus Civilian
the outlaw, and defeats him at Amasea, his head-
quarters, driving him into the fortress of Tyropaeum. Manzikert.
The faithful Armenian Chatatures reinforces and en-
courages him ; and on the arrival of envoys from
Michael VII. offering terms, the ex-emperor returns
an explicit negative. The mother of the Comneni,
suspected of sympathy with his cause, is exiled to
Princes' Isle, like many dignified and unhappy
personages down to our own time. Andronicus
(another son of the Caesar) is now entrusted with
the conduct of the war, which for some reason
Constantine had surrendered. But Romanus, shut
up in Adana, and absorbed in melancholy and
humiliation, took no further part, but depended on
the eager loyalty of Chatatures. But this friend is Romanus

taken prisoner, and Romanus at last surrenders, d°Posedty

. . * . , Catar John.

receiving the solemn promise of personal safety

from the Archbishops of Chalcedon, Heraclea, and
Colonea. Andronicus, brave but faithless (as was
alleged) in the great battle of Manzikert, behaved
well to his imperial captive. He is detained for a
time at Cotyaeum in Phrygia ; and the order of the
Caesar arrives for the extinction of his sight. We
can well believe the asseveration of Psellus that
Michael VII. knew nothing of this barbarity, and that
on this occasion, as on many others, the viziers and
ministers worked their own will under cover of their
master's name. As to the act itself, Psellus evi-
dently believes that it was fully justified from a
political view and in the crisis of the moment.
He deplores it only from the side of that humanity
which was accepted as a Byzantine tradition ; and
he does not regard it as a breach of good faith.
Andronicus refuses to comply, and showed his
indignation by genuine protests. But the Caesar
regent was all-powerful, and the blinded emperor,
conveyed to the isle of Prote, died there untended
in that temper of Christian resignation and calm
VOL. II. U

306 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Romanus heroism, which we learn to expect in misfortune

from these " Greeks of the Lower Empire." Such
was the end of the last colleague-regent from the
military party, and the acute struggle between the
two ideals of government culminated in the year
1071. The character of Diogenes has been differ-
ently estimated. Rather, while we admire his energy
and valour, we must not deny his faults. Reign-
ing by the kind indulgence of his sovereign, who
pardoned and raised him to share her throne, he
was arrogant, selfish, and boastful. He drew to him-
self the sole power, ill-treating her (if we may believe
the envious Psellus) with actual blows, and com-
mitting, in the view of that strong constitutionalist,
the cardinal blunder or crime of a ruler, depending
on his own judgment alone and refusing advice.
The results were mischievous. The name of the
gentle pedant Michael was abused by an unscrupu-
lous minister. The injury rankled in the mind of
the warriors ; and Caesar John, recognising his error
and seeing with alarm the condition of the empire,
threw his weight into the scale of the soldiers, and
brought in the Comnenian dynasty.

Ministers and § 3. The mildness of Michael VII. was inopportune,
^ndlr^M a k*s good intention was ineffectual. He was
VII. : Nice- the victim of his servants, and exerted as little
phoritzes. influence over Roman destinies as over the See of
Ephesus, which he is said to have once visited as its
metropolitan. Coming from a warlike stock (as his
name implies) he had lost all their aptitude or
ambition. He was like Claudius or our own
James I., a punctilious purist and grammarian ; and
he carried the literary aspirations of his father to
a dangerous extent, under the careful training of
Psellus. He wrote poems and discoursed on rhetoric,
and played the docile Marcus Aurelius to his teacher's
Pronto. Even the Caesar John (like the Chinese
regent at the present moment) did not himself
transact the heavy imperial business. The vizierate

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 307

was now a recognised and perhaps a necessary insti- Ministers and
tution ; for princes born in the purple and bred in ffe^ra^f
the palace knew nothing of the realm or its needs, vii.: Nice-
They listened to the only home-truths they were phoritxes.
likely to hear, from outspoken bystanders during
some solemn procession. An episcopal chancellor
was the centre and arbiter of all normal administra-
tion, the Archbishop of Side, in Pamphylia, a wise
and admirable man of business. He recalled Anna,
mother of the Comneni ; and cemented a friend-
ship with the most numerous and powerful family
by marrying a cousin of the young empress to
the eldest son, Isaac : Irene was a daughter of the
king of the Alans, then vassal to the Iberian ruler,
Bagrat IV., whose daughter Mary wedded two em-
perors in succession, Michael VII. and Nicephorus III.
This happy state of affairs did not last. Under
Constantine XI. a certain Nicephoritzes, a Galatian
eunuch, had been a secretary of State, and Eudocia
hating, like Theodora, his chicanery and false sus-
picions, procured his dismissal somewhat strangely
by giving him the duchy of Antioch, an unsuitable
post for a subtle bureaucrat. Here he won the
dislike and contempt of the province ; and Con-
stantine XI. recalled him and placed him in custody.
But the regent Romanus IV. was indebted to him
for large funds raised for the expenses of the Turkish
war, — the method and source of which financial aid
he no doubt forbore to investigate too closely. He
released him from prison, and gave him the post of
Chief Justice of Hellas and the Peloponnese, an
office once held by Monomachus (c. 1040). The
Caesar John created him grand Logothete, and the
Roman world once again beheld a John of Cap-
padocia. Worming himself into the confidence of
Michael VII., he supplants the Caesar and becomes
sole favourite. If we can believe the historians,
there is nothing but indictments and accusations,
delations and spying and heavy sentences, con-

308 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Ministers and fiscation of municipal or private wealth, such as we
^nder^M are ^ec* to exPect to-day from a very different form
VII. : Nice- of government. Appointed sovereign administrator
phoritzes. of fae Hebdom monastery, he perverts the donations
of the pious laity to his own profit ; and creates
a lucrative monopoly in wheat (like early Roman
governors and American financiers) by buying up
the harvest of Thrace and garnering the grain at
Rhedestus. Diminishing the bushel by a quarter,
and enhancing the price for the reduced measure,
he won for his unfortunate master the un-
merited nickname by which he is known in history,
Trapcnrivdictis. The Caesar in umbrage had again
retired to his Asiatic hunting-grounds, and employed
six months in that strenuous leisure, which brings the
Byzantine noble, out of office, so much nearer to the
English statesman than to the lethargic Roman of
classical days. But Nicephoritzes grew alarmed at
the steadily rising influence of the Comneni ; and
recalled the Caesar. Once more he assumed the
upper hand ; and once more the eunuch-minister has
Russell to disembarrass himself of a benefactor and a rival.
I'aptures^ He ir*duced Michael VII. to believe that no one
Ccesar John, else could conduct the campaign against Russell
(OvpcrrjXiog), the second Latin adventurer who dis-
turbed Asia at this time. Succeeding to the command
of the Prankish "foreign legion" after Crispin the
(ppayyoTrovXos, he had shown to the Comneni the
feudal spirit of insubordination, and levied contri-
butions and subsidies like a brigand-chief throughout
Phrygia, Galatia, and Cappadocia. The Caesar's
army was a motley gathering, like the forces of
Romanus IV.: barbarians from the European side,
a Frank corps commanded by Pape, and the usual
Asiatic levies of Phrygia and Lycaonia. An actual
battle was fought near the river Sangarius in Galatia
with the mutineers ; and forms an excellent instance
of the danger of mercenary troops and of the
personal resentment which at several crises in our

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 309

history divided interests and paralysed action. The Russell
Frank contingent not unnaturally fraternised with £JJjJj|^
their rebel kinsmen ; and Nicephorus Botaneiates, Ccesar John,
annoyed since the disappointment of 1067, sullenly
draws off his forces, exposing the brave Caesar to
the whole brunt of the fight. The Caesar, trying to
rescue his son Andronicus in a dangerous combat,
is taken and made a prisoner with him by the
exultant Russell.

§ 4. The days of the fifth century are now
revived. Once more the Teuton or Norseman
gains admittance into the empire after a rigorous
exclusion of 600 years. Once more in the camp of
a Latin mercenary is carried about a tame Caesar,
poor, spectral heir of Augustus and Trajan. The
captive of yesterday becomes the honoured guest
and titular sovereign, and the rebellion takes on
the excuse of a vindication of John's rights. It is
doubtful if Russell for a brief moment entertained
the design of seizing the throne himself ; it is obvious
that if so he speedily abandoned it. Constantine
(elder son of the Caesar) was sent by the minister
Nicephoritzes to avenge the fate of his father and
brother ; but on the eve of taking command he dies
of colic, and I prefer not to impute to the incredible
villainy and folly of the eunuch a sad event entirely
explicable by natural causes.

Russell armed the imperial family against itself ; andproclaims
and forced the genuinely reluctant Caesar to assume him emPeror-
the imperial title. At first he declined the honour,
but hearing that he had many partisans in the
capital, and honestly desirous of saving the dynasty,
he at last assented. Like Attalus or Eugenius or
Gerontius he is saluted emperor by the Franks. After
this events moved wildly. Michael VII. sends to
Russell as token of pardon and amity his wife and
children, and gave him the title Curopalat. But the
crafty minister, no doubt without the express order
or cognisance of the emperor, stirred up against the

310 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

CfEsar John

proclaimed

emperor.

Seized by
Turks,
Russell
regains his
freedom,

but is reduced
by Alexius.

rebel and his usurper the forces of the Turks. It is
difficult to realise the condition of the Asiatic in-
terior after the defeat of Manzikert. The comedy
of the Roman succession was played out on a
deserted scene, and the victors gained little ad-
vantage from their dissension or preoccupation.
The levies were made in the very districts we might
well suppose were harried and ransacked by the
Seljuk ; and the solution must be that only sporadic
detachments of Curds and Turkmans pressed on,
each acting separately, towards the western coast,
and were the pioneers of a constant nitration into
Ionia. Astonishingly quiescent, the main body of
Turks halted on the verge of Cappadocia under
Tutach, to the number of 100,000. These attack
the troops of Russell ; against the Caesar's advice (he
could not command his imperious Master of the
Horse) the first onset is fiercely resisted, and
Russell fell into the main contingent unawares.
The Caesar joined the mad enterprise and shared his
fate. Both were taken prisoners ; and Michael VII.,
relieved at the failure of the condottieri-captain,
ransoms his uncle and obliges him to take the monk's
cowl and tonsure. Unhappily for the peace of
Pontus and the security of the court, Russell recovers
his liberty, and spreads havoc in the neighbourhood
of Amasea and Neocaesarea. Michael, deferring to the
last the dreaded help of the Comnenians, sends to
requisition 6000 men from the Prince of the Alans
(either in accordance with the express covenant of a
treaty or in view of the recent marriage-alliance).
Nicephorus Palaeologus (first mention of this
familiar name) is sent to take command ; and with
the usual perversity of the civilian war-office pay
is withheld, and the once alert allies disband in
confusion.

§ 5. It was agreed by all that the only hope of safety
lay in the valour of the united clans. Alexius, now aged
twenty-five, received a commission to extirpate the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 311

tyrant, and like Belisarius, was told to expect neither Russell

men nor money from the State. Raising his own

retainers, and acting with that humane tact which

passes with the closet-historian for craven duplicity,

he detached the soldiers and Turkish allies from the

cause of the Norse rebel. Tutach seized Russell

once more — and this time in the service of the

empire — and sent him bound to Alexius at Amasea.

Here occurred the curious incident, when the

merchants of Amasea refused to assist the imperialists

by a subsidy ; when Alexius appealed to the people

against the selfishness of the middle class, like a

true Caesar in a democratic republic, or a Liberal

Chancellor of the Exchequer in a popular budget.

Movements were still being made to deliver Russell,

and enable him to continue the guerilla-warfare

which was the delight of his band of countrymen.

Alexius by a kindly pretence affects to blind the rebel

to keep off his dangerous friends, and conveys him

to Constantinople ; there he is beaten and immured. Movement in

—The Balkan district was at this juncture disturbed the Balkans-

by a revolt of Bulgars and Serbs, to diversify by a

foreign war the constant series of domestic sedition.

The former, exasperated by the fiscal exaction of

Nicephoritzes (just as before under Leo VI. by

Stylianus), chose a king and defied, without success,

the European imperialists : their king was sent out of

danger and out of mischief into a Syrian exile, but was

subsequently delivered and came home. The Servian

revolt was fostered and maintained by Longibardi-

poulos with his Lombard kinsmen from Italy, and

his influence was increased by his marriage with the

king's daughter. The capital was dissatisfied at the

inaction of Michael VII. : after the example of

Romanus IV., military prowess was once more believed

to form an indispensable title. But in this respect Disappoint-

at least Michael was incompetent, and had no vain

illusions ; he decided, not without the approval of w

his all-powerful minister, to confer the title Caesar a revolt.

312 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Disappoint- upon Bryennius, then sojourning at his birthplace,
Bryennius Adrinople, for long past the home of a warlike spirit
who prepares and an independent population. Before Bryennius
a revolt. obeyed the summons, Michael VII. changed his
mind, or suffered it to be changed by the insidious
eulogists of the merits, the courage, the enterprise of
the new favourite. As to Agricola under Domitian,
the laudantes amid were the most deadly of his foes.
He is given the title Duke of Bulgaria, and the
commission to chase the Serbs and Slavs. He has
great success ; and extending his sphere he settles at
Dyrrachium, and from thence curbs the insolence
of Croats and the forays of Norse pirates. A second
Pompey, he soon subdues all disturbing elements,
and cleanses the Adriatic Gulf, which since Basil had
begun once more to recognise a Byzantine sovereign.
This enterprise provided prestige and employment
for the military class ; but discontent was still rife in
other quarters, owing to the tactless injuries of the
Premier and the withdrawal of rations and equip-
ment. The Danubian garrisons were at the time
commanded by an old slave of Constantine XL,
Nestor, decorated with the ducal title, who acted in
concert with Tat, a Patzinak chief in the imperial
service. The half-pagan forces had been guilty of
sacrilege in the search for booty at Prespa during
the recent war. Deprived of all their plunder for
reasons which appear to them singularly inadequate,
they burst into open mutiny, and carried with them
their commanders Tat and Nestor. Presenting
themselves before the walls of the capital, they
demand what they believed in their honest conviction
to be simple justice. Nicephoritzes, who never lost
an occasion of humiliating a captain, confiscates the
estate of Nestor ; and nearly succeeds in securing
his person. But the duke departed, began to lay
waste Thrace, Macedonia, and the Bulgarian frontier,
and finally retired among the Patzinaks. In the
sedition of barbarian auxiliaries the Macedonian

CH. xi THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067-1078) 313

troops had taken no part ; but they too had their Disappoint-

grievances and demanded redress. Their envoys ™ent °J .

, , . . . . ,, Bryenmus.

listen to the scornful refusal and acrimonious insult, who prepares

habitual in the treatment of the army ; and returning « revolt,
to Macedonia, with bitterness in their heart, com-
municate their discontent and prepare the way for
the great rising of Nicephorus Bryennius.

§6. In 1077, Bryennius found his position in- and assumes
tolerable, owing to the weakness of his sovereign ***
and the enmity of the minister. He was amazed to
discover that the friendly envoy Eustathius had been
sent by the timid Michael to penetrate his motives
and purpose ; and the unfounded suspicion of treason
converted a loyal subject into a traitor. But it is
unlikely that he would have taken the initiative, if his
brother John and Basilacius had not returned from
an interview with the minister, furious at his refusal
of all their requests for recompense and recognition.
John retired in dudgeon to his Thracian estate (for
the great feudal landlords were not confined to
Lesser Asia), and hears with indignation and alarm
that a drunken Varangian in a village inn near
Adrinople had boasted of his secret commission to
compass his murder. He seizes, examines, and cuts
his nose ; and will owe to this not unseasonable
severity his own assassination some years later. In
concert with the chief inhabitants of Adrinople he
works to arouse an insurrection, and excites his still
hesitating brother at Dyrrachium. He even over-
comes the scruples of the long faithful loyalist
Tarchaniotes, who, unable to arouse the Premier to a
sense of danger, felt himself compelled to join the
rebel and married his sister to John's son. The
minister, neither competent nor diplomatic, actually
allowed his master to name Basilacius governor of
Illyria, with orders to give short shrift to the
mutineers and seize Nicephorus. Reconciled for a
moment to the imperial cause by this unmerited
honour, he at first refuses the overtures of the

314 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Bryennius
assumes
the purple.

The Capital

invested and (Seven

relieved.

Bryennians ; but in the sequel joined them at
Thessalonica with his men. All the Thracian and
Macedonian troops are assembled outside Tra-
janople ; and Nicephorus, still averse to taking the
final and irrevocable step, is here persuaded to do so,
by the threats or entreaties of friends and soldiers and
by the nocturnal shouts of the beleaguered city itself
in his honour. This took place on October 3rd.
days later, as we shall see, Nicephorus
Botaneiates also assumed the purple.) He marches
to his home, Adrinople, and is welcomed with joy.
The Bryennians now suggest terms to the emperor,
for whom they entertained nothing but good-
humoured contempt and pity. In an age affording
many remarkable instances of brotherly unselfish-
ness, John was, according to custom, decorated with
the titles of Curopalat and Grand Domestic and sent for-
ward with the Uzes and Patzinaks. Rhedestus, home
of the late iniquitous monopoly, and Panium were
both willingly surrendered to the party ; and for some
obscure cause Heraclea was burnt, — a rare incident
of retaliation in a chivalrous age when constant
warfare implied neither ravage nor cruelty. Indeed,
a similar incident or accident estranged the warm
sympathies of the citizens of the capital, who were
preparing to declare themselves for Bryennius. They
were filled with anger at the wanton havoc wrought
by some barbarian marauders across the Horn in the
suburban houses, which, though deserted, still con-
tained their rich furniture, believed to be safe in the
mimic tournament of a civil war. Michael VII.
sends out the titular Augustus Constantine XII. in
company with the indispensable Alexius and Russell,
taken from his dungeon. Hastily arming their own
domestics and any chance comer, they break out and
surprise these buccaneers, carrying captive twenty of
their stragglers. This petty defeat, magnified into a
triumph by the populace, and the irksome delay
before the walls, cooled the ardour of the Bryennians ;

CH.XI THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1067 1078) 315

and John, who had not ceased to be a Roman The Capital
because he rebelled against an odious minister,
started at once in pursuit on hearing the report
of a fresh Patzinak inroad. The investing army
breaks up and, directed to the Chersonese, inflicts loss
on the invaders ; while his brother, the emperor of
Adrinople, secures by means of the captives the firm
friendship and alliance of the Patzinaks for his
cause.

§ 7. The situation on the eve of the revolt of strange
Botaneiates was singular and anomalous. The
capital was defended by Germans and Varangians, and Europe and
administered by a slave. The emperor, kindliest of Asia> 1078-
men, was known to exert no influence, and spent his
time in those harmless literary pursuits which from
Claudius and Nero to Michael VII. formed a most
serious charge in the indictment of a Caesar. The
armies, divided into the European and the Asiatic,
and reinforced by foreign and barbarian aid, were still
in large part composed of native levies. After a long
silence the reviving themes, or rather duchies, of the
western empire claimed to exercise the prerogative
of choosing their ruler. The Macedonian troops,
grudgingly supported by the civilian war-office, were
attached to their feudal captains, taken from a few
notable families of Asiatic and Armenian descent.
The populace, by no means servile or cowed by these
constant " pronunciamentos," welcomed a military
pretender, compassionated their powerless but
innocent prince, and detested the tyranny of the
monopolist. The Seljuks, during the whole term of
Michael's nominal reign, would seem to have with-
held their hand, and left the arena free for the
settlement of the Roman disputes. Indeed, they are
found more often acting as obedient allies and
vassals than as active foes. Still, the roving bands
filtered through into the deserted interior of Lesser
Asia, pressed to the western coasts, and formed the
principal support of the forces of Melissenus, yet

316 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. c

Strange

Europe and
Asia, 1078.

another Nicephorus, to whom must be ascribed the
foundation of the Sultanate of Rum. The astonishing
silence and modesty of the Turk after Manzikert
allowed free-play to the combatants in that strange
duel of civilian and soldier, during which the in-
stitutions of ancient Rome completely disappeared.

CHAPTER XII

CONFLICT OF THE THREE NICEPHORI : THE MISRULE
OF BORILAS ; AND THE REVOLT OF THE FAMILIES
OF DUCAS AND COMNENUS (1078-1081).

§ 1. IN the somewhat tangled series of events which Union of

led finally to the seizure and sack of the capital by the Akxiwt with

. ,, . , . j r r • the house °f

Comnemans, the intimate relation and firm friend- DUCOS.

ship of the two chief families must by no means be

forgotten. Michael VII. had no more loyal subject

and lieutenant than Alexius ; Constantine XII. no

more trusty companion. The Caesar John, veritable

king-maker of the period, maintained towards him

throughout a consistent confidence and affection ;

and it was by his arbitrament, arguments, and en-

treaties that the crown was at last transferred to

the Comnenian dynasty. Andronicus, his son, had

never recovered strength after his wounds in the

Russell tumult, and was slowly dying ; his daughter,

Irene Ducas, was married to Alexius, and the two

houses doubly bound together. Constantine XII.

would have preferred his own sister Zoe for his

friend ; and Anna Dalassena, mother of the Com-

neni, had not forgiven her brief and honourable

exile at the hands of the Caesar. Nor was the facile

Michael convinced of the wisdom of this alliance.

But John, who with the monk's cowl did not lose

interest or influence in public affairs, had the usual

success of firm resolve and honest purpose. After

some trifling success of Alexius, objections were

swept away and the nuptials celebrated amid great

public joy. — Meantime the Eastern troops, honey- Insurrection

combed by discontent, envied the European forces

their resolute conduct, but refused to acknowledge

317

318 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Insurrection their candidate. Once more the armies of the Taurus
of East&rn^ frontier sustained their prerogative of creating the
Botaneiates. prince, which was so long their unquestioned right.
On October 10, 1077, a second Nicephorus Phocas,
an aged and now lethargic veteran, assumed the
purple, convoked the officers of Asia Minor, and
divided amongst them the usual dignities and titles
of honour. Only two captains of distinction pre-
served their good faith to the civilian regime ; Nice-
phorus Melissenus (who won in later days a sinister
fame) and George Palaeologus, whose father at this
time was in command of such territory and such
forces as the Turks chose to allow the Romans in
Mesopotamia. The cause of Botaneiates was every-
where popular, not by reason of his personal character
so much as by way of protest against an unworthy
tyrant. The towns of Pontus, Cappadocia, and
Galatia opened their gates to him ; well disposed
towards a change of masters, and enlisted by trusty
envoys, by the promises and example of senators
and clergy, among whom the Patriarch of Antioch,
Emilianus, was prominent. To the mind of Nice-
phoritzes suggested itself one single unique and un-
patriotic expedient ; he secretly begged Soliman to
stop the nearer advance of the new rebels. But
Botaneiates with but three hundred men manages,
in spite of this formidable obstacle, to traverse the
length of Asia Minor, by way of Cotyaeum, Azula (on
the Sangar), and Nice ; and to disarm the hostility
of the Sultan by the hired offices of Kroudj (Chrysos-
culus), the amiable renegade. Before the walls of
Nice, Nicephorus halts with his scanty following ; he
sees with consternation the battlements manned and
the walls lined with soldiers and citizens. But to
his relief and joy it is his own name that is thundered
forth by them in the imperial salutation ; and he
reposes securely in the city while awaiting reinforce-
ment from his friends and news from the capital.
For in Constantinople the sympathy was general ;

CH.XII THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 319

senators and clergy, as in Asia, were warm adherents ; Insurrection
Emilian of Antioch and the Archbishop of Iconium, ^^funder
leaving their flocks, succumbed to the delights of Botaneiates.
political intrigue.

§ 2. The support of the Caesar John was believed Abdication of
to be essential to success. An envoy, Michael Barus, Mlchael VI1-
was sent to shake his constancy, but to no purpose ;
and the indignant uncle apprehends the emissary,
and informs his nephew and (what was more im-
portant) the minister Nicephoritzes. But the inertia
or mistaken clemency of Michael VII. ruined any
hopes of prompt action, in which still remained a
chance of success. The conspirators the next day
(March 24.) open the prisons (a now favourite method),
and assemble in St. Sophia, where revolution
always sought the divine sanction, and failure the
divine protection. In the still potent names of
Senate and Patriarch they summoned all good citizens
to repair with them to the great church. But Alexius
advises stern measures ; and believes that one charge
of the palace -guard under a well-known captain
would disperse the mutineers. The emperor is
shocked at this advice ; " Would you have me lose
my reputation for clemency ? " asked the unhappy
scholar ; and abdicating in favour of his brother, Con-
stantine XII., he retired to the church of Blachern.
The new monarch at once repudiates the offer of a Borilas enters

throne, and hastens to pay his homage to the veteran the palace

. . it, i • and takes

who is cautiously and by slow stages approaching to vengeance

assume the power which Michael had let fall so on N^ce-
tamely. Borilas, a slave, is sent ahead to take formal p l
possession of the palace in the name of Nicephorus
III., and Alexius and Constantine are welcomed in
the camp, though his distrust and suspicion of the
Ducas family is only dispelled by the straightforward
apology of Alexius. The Caesar John, who had not
been allowed to save his nephew's throne, now
advises him in his irretrievable plight to become a
monk, and the Studium receives the imperial novice.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Borilas enters
the palace
and takes
vengeance
on Nice-
phoritzes.

Weakness
and extra-
vagance of
Nicephorus
III.

Meantime, Nicephoritzes makes good his escape to
Selymbria, where at his command Russell the Nor-
man had taken his stand. He essayed to turn the
Norman to the cause of Bryennius, and failing, is
believed to have poisoned him. The friends of Russell
carried the fallen minister to Nicephorus III., who
sends him into exile. But the household slaves who
then controlled the government, Borilas and Ger-
manus, urge the emperor to inquire into his secret
hoards of wealth. Contrary to the emperor's orders,
torture is used by Straboromanus to compel restitu-
tion, and under it Nicephoritzes expired (1078).

§ 3. This bloodless revolution had once more re-
stored the supreme authority to a warrior. But, from
the military point of view, the character and spirit of
the soldier, once elevated to the purple, underwent
a complete deterioration. The etiquette of the palace
confined him within its precincts, and formulated his
daily routine with rigid precision. He inherited all
his predecessor's diffidence in respect of the army-
corps, reposed his trust and the welfare of the realm
solely in menials, and once more raised the old
struggle between the warrior and the civilian. Borilas
and Germanus were the imperial slaves and con-
fidants, who rose, like Icelus in the service of Galba,
from household duties to the control of affairs.
Botaneiates, to secure the still doubtful favour of the
official world, opens the treasury, and with spend-
thrift generosity, lavishes titles and pensions broad-
cast. The State was ruined by these extravagant doles ;
distinctions were vulgarised ; the fisc was exhausted ;
and at last recourse was had to the most disgraceful
expedient of a bankrupt empire — the debasement of
the coinage. He attempted to come to terms with
Bryennius, his Macedonian rival, and despatches
Straboromanus, a kinsman of his own, with Chcero-
sphactes, a relative of Bryennius. They met the
pretender in Mcesia, near Theodorople, and offered
adoption as Caesar and the second place in the

CH. xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 321

administration. Like Isaac Comnenus, in the similar Weakness
crisis of 1057, Bryennius accepted these conditions, andextra-
merely stipulating that the honours and titles of his ^^orws
partisans should be confirmed, and that his corona- HI.
tion as Caesar should take place outside the city.
Asked his reason, he bluntly confessed his entire
disbelief in the good faith of the ministers. Their
influence broke off the negotiations ; and the em-
peror had to appeal to Alexius, now invested with
the rank of Nobilissimus and Grand Domestic. The
names and numbers of the soldiers under his com-
mand are instructive and significant. The Eastern
or Asiatic forces were still congregated on the Turkish
frontier ; and in 1077 (according to Samuel of Ani), six
years after Manzikert, a Roman army had engaged
with Gomechtikin near the old contested border-
forts of Nisibis and Amida. Alexius had trained a
new corps, the Immortals, named after the famous
bodyguard of the Persians ; he leads the men of
Choma (Xw/Aarqi/ot), a detachment from Mount
Taurus and the warlike settlements there ; and this
motley host is reinforced by Soliman the Seljuk.
Advancing with Catacalon to the river Almyras, in Alexius ends
Thrace, he comes in sight of the splendid array of ^ ™nniufat
Bryennius and Tarchaniotes of Adrinople (now his Calabrya.
most faithful lieutenant) ; Italian mercenaries, Uzes
and Patzinaks (under the terms of the recent alliance),
and the regular detachments of Thrace and Mace-
donia, become of late the flower of the Roman forces.
The battle was fought at Calabrya, and long hung in
a doubtful issue. The Franks under Alexius desert to
their kinsmen's side, and the Patzinaks rout the army
of Catacalon. But by a clever ruse the Imperialists
spread the report that Bryennius had fallen, and
point to a riderless horse which had been captured
by Alexius. The Turks arrive at the opportune
moment, and add terror to the now wavering party
of the pretender. As in most battles of the feudal
period, there would seem to have been little loss of

VOL. II. X

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Alexius ends life and much chivalrous display of personal valour.

jfr renniufat The Turks> surrounding their gallant foe, entreat him

Calabrya. not to throw away his life, and conduct him to
Alexius. The two generals travel together in amicable
intercourse as comrades, and Bryennius refuses to
take advantage of the slumber of Alexius, either to
avenge his own defeat or secure his safety by flight.
But the vindictive ministers sent Alexius on another
quest, and he was not able to entrust his captive to
the clemency of Nicephorus. Borilas gives orders
that Bryennius should be blinded ; and the feeble
emperor mourned the deed, disclaimed responsibility,
and by every means — by invitation to the palace, and
by new wealth and added dignities — attempted to
atone for the irreparable outrage. With no less
kindness he allowed the Bryennian faction to retain
the grades and distinctions conferred by the usurper,
and no further inquiry was made as to their behaviour
in the recent sedition. The vengeance of a menial
and a barbarian mercenary alone demanded cruel
satisfaction ; Borilas had mutilated Nicephorus, and
the injured Varangian requited his own wrong by
assassinating John, as he left the palace after a
friendly interview with the emperor. At this murder
and contempt for authority the cold prince was filled
with righteous indignation, and wished to punish the
criminal. The whole body of Varangians broke out
into mutiny, and threatened to murder the emperor,
to whom they had not yet transferred the con-
temptuous yet faithful loyalty borne to the house of
Ducas. Botaneiates could not control his soldiers,
and trembled before his servants. His gifts had not
secured respect or affection ; and the firm rule (as
had been expected) of a resolute general became the
tyranny of a palace-clique or a Turkish guard.

Revolt of § 4. Meantime the harvest of pretenders was by

no means over- The Western Provinces, awaking
from their long slumber of exhaustion, claimed equal
rights in the election of a prince. The area of the

CH. xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 323

malcontents comprised Illyria and Macedonia; the Revolt of
modern country of European Albania, and the home astltunus in
of the Shkipetars, the Toskidae and Geghidae, and of
the formidable Turkish rebel Ali Pasha of Jannina.
Basilacius took up the cause which had fallen
almost by an accident from the hands of Bryennius.
Long before the end of that futile revolt he had
approached Achrida and consulted the Archbishop
whether he should assume the purple. The church-
man dissuaded him, and he retired, to watch events
and to protect the empire, to Dyrrhachium, with his
mingled forces of Illyrians, Macedonians, Bulgars,
Franks, and Lombards from Italy. On the coronation
of Nicephorus III. he wrote a letter of congratulation
and welcome, and receives from him the title of
Nobilissimus with a golden Bull. But while the con-
test of Imperialists and Bryennians was hanging in
the balance, he threw off disguise and delays, took
the Augustan name and attire, and waited with calm
indifference to question the right and challenge the
fortune of the survivor in the duel. Alexius en-
camped on a plain near the river Vardar (Axius),
and Basilacius issued forth from his headquarters at
Thessalonica (six leagues' journey) to encounter him.
The engagement was long uncertain, and if we are
to believe historians, it was at last decided, like
Calabrya, by a conspicuous exploit of personal valour.
This, while it turned the tide and determined the
issue, gave no proof of the relative strength or spirit
of the combatants. While Manuel, a nephew of
Basilacius, exultantly proclaims aloud that the day
is theirs, a Macedonian-Armenian and Imperialist
named Curticius seizes him bodily, drags him from
his saddle, and carries him off to the feet of Alexius.
Basilacius drew off his crestfallen troops to Thes-
salonica, and is by them compelled to capitulate.
Either the army was growing weary of constant
sedition, or it had determined that the captain and
inspired leader of the warriors could not be found

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

in Basilacius. Once more the clemency of Alexius
once more' an^ of his sovereign was eluded or openly flouted ;
victorious. between Amphipolis and Philippi messengers arrive
from Borilas, who demand the person of the captive,
and inflict the usual penalty for high treason. The
position of Alexius now gave him reason for serious
thought. The trusted right hand and indispensable
champion of the Imperialist cause, the friend and
favourite of the aged emperor, he had become the
sport of slaves, who sent him breathless from one
post of danger to another, allowed him no repose,
and robbed him of the recompense and credit of his
victories. His achievements were tarnished by their
cruelty and bad faith ; and he knew well that they
would hail his failure with secret joy, as they had
regarded his success with spiteful envy. He was
now decorated by his grateful sovereign with the
new title Se/Wro'? ; and the " Greeks," in conferring
this dignity upon private subjects outside the imperial
family, would seem to forget that it is a mere trans-
lation of " Augustus." But the favour of the em-
peror counted for little at the court, and was no
guarantee of security. Nicephorus III. had just
married the wife of Michael VII., consoled for the
loss of kingdom and partner with the Archbishopric
of Ephesus ; and the young Constantine XIII., born
in the purple and invested with the imperial dignity
in his cradle, became the stepson and prospective
heir of a childless and uxorious prince ; his proposed
union to Robert Guiscard's daughter Helen was
broken off, and in the issue we might see how fraught
with evil result was this rupture.1
Restless state § 5. With the settlement of the disputed succession,

of European fne inhabitants of either continent might reasonably
and Astatic . . & *«•

provinces. hope for a period of quiet and recuperation. Their

1 The Byzantine court had now completely laid aside its vain and
Chinese exclusiveness in the question of imperial princesses ; the regula-
tions or advice of Constantine VII., never adhered to with strict fidelity,
were now again and again disregarded ; and Nicephorus wedded his niece,
a daughter of Theodulus of Synnada, to the Craal of Hungary.

CH xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 325

hopes were disappointed. The European provinces Restless state
were once more overrun by Patzinaks (no doubt o/Ewropwn

J and Asiatic

the late allies of the two Macedonian pretenders), provinces.
and by Paulicians, a fiery race of Covenanters, who
still retained their faith and truceless hatred of
Greek Church and Byzantine rule in their new home
in Thrace. The former burnt a large part of Adrin-
ople, home of the recent sedition. Lecas, a Paulician
heretic, slays the Bishop of Sardica at the altar, and
Dobrouni, another of the same creed, acting in
concert with him, spreads terror in the vicinity of
Mesembria. These two miscreants, tiring of outlawry,
conceive the bold project of demanding amnesty
and pardon from Nicephorus ; it is granted with
criminal indulgence, and thus the lenient ruler is
obliged for the second time to condone an atrocious
murder, in an age unusually tender in regard to
human life. Nor was Asia more tranquil. The
Turks had begun again their inroads, dissatisfied (as
we may well suppose) with the recompense meted
out by the courtiers for their service in the late
sedition. Alexius, detained against the Basilacians, Futile
was not available, and Constantine XII., the son
of Ducas, was sent in command. Never formally
despoiled of the Augustan title which he had carried
since birth, he conceives that the time has now
arrived for enforcing his claims. Crossing to Chry-
sopolis with the forces allotted to him, he assumed
the garb and title to which he had a right, and
seemed uncertain whether he would teach the Turkish
marauder a lesson or overthrow the government.
But his attempt proves abortive ; and Nicephorus
immures him as a monk in some convent on the
Propontis: in the next reign he will be seen as a
trusted captain in the expeditions of Alexius. All
these events seem crowded into a single anxious and
turbulent year. But it would be a mistake to ex-
aggerate the misery or bloodshed caused by these
incessant civil wars. The condition and the senti-

326 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Futile ment of the provinces, always obscure under a cen-

tra^se<^ government, cannot be distinctly revealed
by the most patient search. Still, it may be in-
ferred that the western half enjoyed considerable
prosperity, in spite of the brilliant skirmishes and
tourneys which amused the mercenaries and grati-
Like earlier fied the military instincts of the Armenian families
Slavonic ancj Macedonian nobles. As for Lesser Asia, it is
*^Twrfo*' hard to ascertain the extent or the design of the
penetrate into Turkish forays or Turkish migrations wending slowly
Asia Minor. without violence to the western coast. Life

went on much the same in the luxurious society of
the walled towns, and the nomad Turkomans may
have been accepted with indifference and permitted
to settle, or rather bivouac, on Roman soil. This
part of Asia, in a word, was Turkicised much as
Greece and Macedonia were Slavonised in the
seventh and eighth centuries. There was no definite
moment when Roman authority ceased in the various
districts, when the writ of a Roman emperor ceased
to run. Permeated by degrees, and at first in its
more desolate regions, by new colonists, the country
lost by silent and stealthy encroachment its language,
its government, and its creed. The urban centres
still retained their wealth and culture, speedily re-
covered any violent raid which from time to time fell
on them, and willingly abandoned to the new occu-
pants whole tracts of superfluous pasturage. Mean-
time the new settlers or nomads, with a savage's
deep-seated dislike of needless war, became peace-
ful countrymen, carrying into a desert the rules
and customs of a patriarchal community. They
crept into the service of the Romans, and into the
religious faith of the Greeks. Utterly lacking in
the conception of a wider polity than the tribe,
they looked with amazement at the complicated
mechanism of the empire, fell into place like
Teutons and Goths before them as soldiers, hus-
bandmen, and household domestics ; and even

CH. xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 327

mounted into the high places of spiritual and civil Like earlier

mi- Slavonic

i inc.

§ 6. The influx of the Turks differed no doubt ^Turkl **
in important details and in general result ; but the penetrate into
method was the same — a gradual infiltration and no
definite challenge or conquest. We must repeat
that the Turks, under Soliman, are found more often
as allies than as enemies of Rome ; and the attitude
of the Seljuks was not by any means wholly hostile.
As with the Goths under Valens, 378, their violence or
breach of faith was often the issue of some tactless
meddling of government officials. The Turkomans
who followed in the train of the Seljuks were not
fighters by conviction but bandits by necessity.
Pillage was to them a means of livelihood ; they had
neither the fixed design nor the discipline necessary
for annexation. Their masters and superiors, the
Seljuk caste, had no wish to overthrow the empire.
For the Sultanate of Rum, which stands out so boldly
in the map as an independent power, had its origin
no doubt, like the Prankish power in Gaul or the
Visigothic in Spain, in some curious and confused
sentiment in which alliance, vassalage, and occasionally
overt enmity were unequally blended. Nor can it
be for a moment doubted that the real founder of
this Turkish dominion in Hither Asia was a Roman
and pretender to the purple. In 1080, Nicephorus "Nicephorus
" the Fifth," Melissenus, brother-in-law of Alexius, ^urko^n *
took the imperial title. Himself a great feudal lord principality.
in Cos, he had influence on the mainland. Allying
with these roving Turkish bands he founded a prin-
cipality along the coast, which gave an augury and
example of the Latin counties in loose vassalage to
the kingdom of Jerusalem. With these strange
allies or mercenaries, he becomes master of Phrygia
and Galatia ; and it would be difficult to decide
whether in effect a new usurper had assumed the
purple or a foreign tribe had ousted Roman customs
and authority from a large and fertile district. Was

328 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Akxius

him.

" Nicephorus it but another ephemeral revolt or a revolution ?

Turk^n ° The Chief CitieS °Pened their §ates to him and his

principality, masterful servants without demur or conviction ;
and a powerful army of mixed troops was stationed
in Nice (henceforth, until the coming of the Crusaders,
the headquarters of a rival to the Byzantine Caesar).
The court proposed to send against this new pre-
tender the usual scourge of rebels, Alexius. The
emperor had lavished on him and his family the most
honourable marks of favour and affection. Isaac,
returning lately, 1079, from a prosperous viceroyalty
as Duke of Antioch, was created Se/Sao-ro?, lodged in
the palace, and apparently chosen in all but open
promulgation as heir-presumptive. His advice was
taken, or at least he was officially consulted, in all
affairs ; and the star of the servile camarilla waned.
Incapable of business, but well-meaning and amiable,
Nicephorus III. might have reigned in confidence
and security as a constitutional monarch had not
the traditions of Byzantine despotism made him the
prey and the victim of his valets.

§ 7. Alexius, fatigued and distrustful, had lately
curbed the raids of the Patzinaks, by turns servants
and spoilers of the Balkan district. He put little
faith in the imperial favour, or rather the imperial
advisers, and declined the commission to overthrow
the fifth Nicephorus. As in old times a palace-
eunuch is appointed in his place, raised, like Narses
under Justinian, from the control of the imperial
wardrobe (TrpcoTo/SearTiapios, a title coveted even by
warriors) to the responsible direction of a foreign
campaign. To the annoyance of the army, John
takes over the command from Alexius, and leads his
force to Nice. There he secures Fort George on
Lake Asernius, near which Nice is built, and holds
a council of war to discuss its future conduct.
Curticius (the hero of Calabrya) and George Palaeo-
logus, his uncle, recommend an immediate attack on
the Sultan at Dorylaeum. John insists on his sole

OH. xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 329

authority, and drags the army into a distressing Alexius
plight, from which he is only rescued by George ^v
Palaeologus. He repays this timely service by black him.
ingratitude, and prejudices the emperor's mind
against the worthiest of his captains. The court-
party dared not repeat the experiment ; no further
levies were trusted either to a soldier or a civilian ;
and Melissenus (astonishing to relate) continued un- West Asia

disturbed to divide Hither Asia peaceably with the ^dependent

and aggres-
Turks into the reign of Alexius. So far from acting sive.

as a Roman patriot, he was a mere forerunner or
jackal, preparing the way for the Turks. When he
was removed the delusion was detected ; under cover
of a fictitious emperor, Soliman had quietly estab-
lished his undisputed sway over all Asiatic provinces,
from Cilicia to the Hellespont. The capital was
fixed at Nice ; the still Greek or Roman towns paid
him their tribute, and perhaps hardly regretted
the days of Nicephoritzes or Borilas. The Turk
never proposes to administer ; he is content to en-
camp and to enjoy. No violent catastrophe marked
the insensible change of government. The "seven
churches " and the dead or decaying metropoles of
Ionia scarcely marked the gradual shifting from the
rule of an emperor to that of a usurper,1 and from
this again to the control of a Turkish emir depend-
ing on Soliman the Seljuk. So abased was the
imperial government, or so indifferent to a trifling
inconvenience, that the ferry-dues insolently estab-
lished on the Asiatic side by the half-Roman, half-
Turkish power, were hardly resented. Certainly, no
steps were taken to remove the oppressive toll-
booths, the publicans who filled, or the unnatural
alliance which supported them. In this extraordinary
atmosphere of tolerance and half-heartedness ended
the year 1080 ; and we have now reached the
climax of our story.

1 Could the boundary-line be so accurately drawn, and were not both
wearers of the name Nicephorus ?

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

TheMinisters § 8. The ministers, long jealous of the Comnenian

PConm&nian8 c*an> ^° not trou^^e to disguise their suspicion and
dislike. The Empress Mary (wife of two sovereigns)
formally adopts Alexius ; and her husband (no doubt
at the instigation of the envious cabal) announces a
nephew from Synnada as heir to the throne. The
choice was by no means bad ; the son of the rich
Asiatic noble Theodulus was youthful; accomplished,
and vigorous. But the empress saw in Alexius the
defender of her son's claims, the little Constantine
XIII. At this juncture the ministers decided to
get rid of Alexius and his kin, either by casting
them as a prey to the Turks or by weaving a charge
of attempted treason. Alexius is sent against the
barbarians and their renegade tl Roman " emperor
to Cyzicus ; and the ministers work on the fears of
the emperor. They point to the troops gradually
collecting (at his own orders !) for the campaign, in
the streets and barracks of the capital. Alexius
contrives to reassure the emperor, who may per-
haps have remembered that he was once a soldier
and had risen to power as champion of the military
interest. The rumour went that the insufferable
Borilas himself designed to kill the emperor and
seize the throne ; certainly it was agreed that he
had marked out the whole Comnenian clan for ruin.
Alexius then determined to forestall him. His com-
panions and advisers are, significantly enough, an
Armenian Bacouraon (Pacurians) and the nephew
of Robert Guiscard, known to the Greeks under the
patronymic of Humbertopoulus. On February 14,
the later St. Valentine's Day, the party take their
momentous step and leave the city. They collect
at Tchourlu (TfyvpovXov), while their wives and
children secure themselves in the safe and venerable
asylum of Sophia. But the movement would have
been incomplete, perhaps destined to utter failure,
without the magic of the name and influence of
Caesar John. He had thrown off the monk's cowl,

CH. xii THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1078-1081) 331

and was occupying one of his country-seats in TheMinisters
Thrace. An emissary entreated his sanction and
approval for the enterprise. He starts to join the
mutineers, and on the way annexes the treasure
of a financial agent of the government and the
alliance of a vagrant troop of Hungarians. The
principal towns of Thrace (with the strange excep-
tion of Adrinople) declare for the insurgents ; and
they advance to the capital, encamping at Schiza,
within six leagues. The warm appeal of Caesar
John and the unselfish affection of Isaac Comnenus
enlisted all sympathy for Alexius. Constantine XII.
was a tonsured monk, Constantine XIII. an infant;
and the Caesar, representing the whole Ducas interest,
earnestly pleaded for the young champion of im-
perialism, whose merits had won so infamous a
recompense. Isaac, in full sight of the army, invests Alexius
the still reluctant Alexius with the imperial insignia ; mvested»
and these two by this act fix the policy and the
succession of Byzantine royalty for a hundred years.
" Nicephorus V." writes to congratulate Alexius on
escaping the perfidious intrigue of miserable slaves,
and suggests a division of the empire : but the
negotiations came to nothing. The fourth Nice-
phorus trembled and lost heart : the Caesar corrupts
the German guard and gains admittance for the
whole insurgent army. The entire city is abandoned Sack of the
to pillage, but life is spared. Botaneiates, failing in %$££
a message to Melissenus for aid, offers to adopt Botaneiates
Alexius and transmit the crown to him, retaining (1081)-
only title and dignity, but surrendering active
control. These offers (which could hardly have
altered the status of the ineffective prince) came too
late. The patriarch urged him to spare Christian
bloodshed, and retire in obedience to Heaven's
manifest will. The bodyguard still lined the avenues
of the palace, and were prepared to resist ; but like
Pius IX., the last legitimate Nicephorus decided to
abandon his cause. Wrapping his head in his mantle,

HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. c

Sack oj the

Botamiates
(1081).

and preceded by the scoffing Borilas, he takes the
road to St s°Phia- Removed to the convent of
Periblept, he receives the tonsure, and on his own
confession regretted none of the pleasures or profits
of empire but the use of meat, from which his new
career debarred him. With the victory of the
Comnenian clan begins a new era for the Roman
Empire, which at least here we are not prepared to
follow. The military caste had triumphed, and a
potent family divided out amongst its members the
extravagant titles, the steadily dwindling resources,
and the real hard work of the empire. The sack of
the capital, so bitterly deplored by Alexius and his
daughter the historian, marks a real change in
motives, ideals, and political aims ; and we are
warranted in fixing here the limit of our survey of
the institutions of imperial Rome.

PART II

ARMENIA AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE
EMPIRE (520-1120)

THE PREDOMINANCE OF THE ARMENIAN
ELEMENT

DIVISION A

GRADUAL ADMITTANCE (540-740)

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

§ 1. UNDER the dynasty of the Heracliads the Interest of
Balkan peninsula ceased to form an effective part ^^
of the empire ; but Lesser Asia was recovered and Eastern

consolidated. The great nursery of warlike princes dynasties of

.« -rx *_. - , Rome and

m the Danubian provinces sent no more champions Armenia.

like Decius or Diocletian, like Constantius and his
heirs, or Justinian and his nephew. Africa is lost by
the year 700 ; and by 750 the resolute Constantine V.
seems to have abandoned all interest in older Rome,
and submitted with a strange tameness to the loss
of the Exarchate. The scene of the active and
decisive movements, which only find an echo or a
reflection on the smaller Byzantine stage, is shifted
eastwards and comprises the new Regiments of
Asia Minor and the newly risen nation of Armenia.
It is a matter of no great importance to decide
whether Conon is an Isaurian or a Syrian ; what
is of interest is his undoubted connection with the
land between the Caucasus and Lake Van. Now
the eighth century witnesses a significant revival in
the nationalities lying on the Eastern frontier. And
the spring of their fresh and energetic vitality may
be traced to the stir and commotion which followed
the overthrow of the Persian Colossus and the
establishment of the militant caliphate about the
year 650.

An Armenian, Artavasdus, contended for the
Byzantine throne just a century before the Bagratid
dynasty arose under Ashot I. on the ruins of the

385

336

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Interest of
eighth
century :
Eastern
dynasties of
Rome and
Armenia.

Early
Armenian
history :
Arsacids and
conversion of
Tiridat (c.
300).

Caliphate : and an Arzrunian, Leo V., actually reigned
for seven troubled years over the Roman Empire,
long before his own family had established them-
selves in independence in their own country. The
weakness of the successors of Harun gave a welcome
opportunity for revival to the Armenian nationality,
and enabled them to preserve a feudal liberty, to
play a new and serious part in the politics of the
East.

The Bagratid dynasty, with the rival family of
Arzrunians in Vasparacania (908-1080), will pro-
vide two strong Christian principalities on the east
of the " Roman " Empire down to the very last years
of the period we are undertaking. A third fraction
indeed, to the west of Lake Van, fell under the
Muslim, — the Merwanidae ; and the relations of all
three portions of Armenia oscillated between auto-
nomy and vassalage to Byzantium or to Bagdad and
his lieutenant at Melitene. All were extinguished
together at the close of our epoch (1080) ; and only
in the mountain-fastnesses of Cilicia, in the safe
asylum of Mount Taurus, did there linger on a
semblance of Armenian sovereignty, expiring about
fifty years before the fall of Constantinople (A.D. 1400)
in the person of Leo VI., a refugee in the Parisian
metropolis. Such is a hasty outline of the fortunes
of the Armenian provinces from the advent of the
" Isaurians " to the accession of Alexius Comnenus.

§ 2. It will be necessary to cast our eyes backward
as well as forward if we wish to have a clear notion
of the place occupied and the part played by this
singular nationality. Armenia owes its renown and
its integrity to the same family that so long bore
sway in Parthia, the Arsacidae. In 150 B.C. a
Parthian sovereign established his brother there, and
the line continued to the reigns of Theodosius II.
and Valentinian III. (150 B.C. to A.D. 430). Such a
State, midway between two great empires and often
bearing the brunt of their quarrels, would bear a

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 337

doubtful allegiance to the courts of Rome and of Early
Ctesiphon. It was to Armenia that the pride and
tradition of the Arsacids retired after the triumph Arsacids and
of the Sassanids in the reign of Severus II. (226). conversion of
There the national or dynastic opposition to the new 300$°*
family (or tribe) sustained itself for some six years ; and
we may notice that the kingdom was reconstituted
in the latter part of the century by Roman aid,
and after a brief hostility under Tiridat accepted
the Christian faith and practice. Himself of royal
Arsacid descent, Gregory the Illuminator works for
the conversion of his people ; and before the great
tenth persecution in the Roman Empire (c. 304 A.D.)
Armenia had its Patriarch or Catholicus, and the
Church could claim more than half the subjects as
believers. Towards the close of the fifth century a
division of interests or " spheres of influence " (such
as divides Persia to-day between Russia and England)
became necessary ; and Theodosius authorised an
amicable settlement with Persia ; by which Pers-
armenia had its Arsacid governor, owning allegiance
to the State, and Roman Armenia, a similar native
chieftain, owning fealty to Byzantium (c. 400 A.D.).
The high-water mark of Roman influence was reached
in the reign of Maurice, nearly two hundred years
after (c. 600 A.D.), when, as Georgius of Cyprus clearly
shows, a considerable advance of imperial frontier
was made in the North and the Euphrates valley. In
Persarmenia, indeed, the Arsacids were soon super-
seded by princes or satraps of Persian birth, who
continued for just two centuries (c. 430-630 A.D.).
The disastrous rupture in the orderly succession Decay of
of the empire, and the internecine conflict of the Roman influ-
Heraclian revival, tired out the two combatants in Iwenth
profitless warfare. Armenia in 650 yielded greatly century.
to Saracen influence ; and in the loose federalism of
the early political system of Islam retained its native
princes owning obedience to the caliph. The reign
of Justinian II. is memorable for an attempt to
VOL. n. Y

338

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Decay of
Roman influ-
ence in
seventh
century.

Armenian
Non-
conformity,
obstacle to
union.

recover independence, or rather to exchange the
Arabian suzerainty for a Roman protectorate. But
before the close of his first reign (by 695) the
country is entirely subjected and Arab emirs replace
the suspected native chieftains. Thus the last years
of this century witness the loss of the African province
and a curtailment of the "sphere of Roman in-
fluence " in the nearer East. For one hundred
years all is confusion and disorder ; and we again
take up the records of this " ambiguous " people,
as Tacitus calls it, in the renewed activity displayed
under the Jewish (?) family of Ashod, who in the
reign of the third Michael founded a power, which,
with numberless vicissitudes and sundry changes of
abode, lasts five and a half centuries till the latter
days of the Palaeologi (843-1393).

§ 3. A strange fortune overtook this doubtful land
and nation, belonging properly neither to West nor
East, siding with the empire in general Christian
belief, yet severed from a full sympathy and com-
munion by an accident or a misunderstanding. For
the Armenian Church remained in touch with Ortho-
doxy for barely a century and a half (300—450 A.D.).
It did not accept the Articles of Chalcedon (451 A.D.)
in the reign of Marcian ; and so great was its detesta-
tion of the Nestorian heresy that it distorted some
uncertain phrases in this Council's decisions into
an acceptance of the hateful " Adoptianism," used
language which savoured of Eutychianism (en//u/iu£t?,
not ei/oxr*?), and gradually drifted away from the
great Establishment into a kind of provincial isola-
tion. (And from this it may be said never to have
successfully issued. Evangelised by the Jesuits and
protected by the Russian Church and Government,
it still preserves its solitude and its independence, and
now and again extends tentative offers for reunion
to the Protestant sects in Western Europe.) It was
a feature of later Persian diplomacy to foster these
religious schisms. The supposed Eutychians of

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 339

Armenia, and the followers of Nestorius, found the Armenian

same favour and protection : and the advisers of the ^on~

conformity,
Shah were quite aware of the political value of an obstacle to

opposition to Byzantine orthodoxy. It was the first

endeavour of Heraclius, warrior and theologian, to

revive religious unity in the East, and rally the

flagging patriotism of Armenia, Egypt, and Syria in

the new crusade (c. 625). His failure belongs rather

to the records of religious history than to my present

design ; and I am content here merely to remark the

abortive effort, — which will be described more fully

in a later section. But whatever the schism between not to entry

the churches and the cleavage between Armenia and of Armenian

..... ... . , . into Roman

Byzantine speculation, nothing hindered the widening service.
influence of the Armenian stock on the destinies of
the empire. We may hazard the conjecture that in
the singularly democratic or purely official society
of the capital, this definite title to noble birth gave
weight and influence. Plagues had decimated By-
zantium in the middle of the sixth and eighth century.
An artificial capital, artificially recruited, is exposed
to violent changes and vicissitudes. In the reigns
of Theodosius II., of Justinian I., of Constantine V.,
an entirely different population thronged the cities.
The official nobility were subject to the same law of
sterility and decay, inexorably awaiting comfort and
opulence and that secure transmission of hereditary
wealth, which was the chief pride (and perhaps the
chief danger) of the empire. A primitive society is
keenly alive to the claims of birth ; and the Armenians
might boast to find among themselves the " oldest
and most illustrious families of Christendom/' It is
no wonder that Asiatic influence eclipsed the mori-
bund traditions of Greece and Rome. The eighth
century tells of the internecine conflict between
Hellenism, enthroned in the Establishment, and the
new Asiatic militarism, which, as the spirit of Crom-
well's soldiers, represented a practical and Puritan
piety. The newly stirring movement makes itself

340 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

Armenian felt first perhaps in the revolt of Simbat or Sempad,
conformit under Justinian II., — corrupted into some resem-
obstacle to ' blance to a native Greek name, as Sabbatios

union, or Symbatios (just as the titles of Gothic kings

not to entry . .« « ,

of Armenian were insensibly accommodated to classic etymology

intoRoman as Theodoric, Theodatus). Under Constans III.,
an "Armeniac" general of Persian birth, Saborios
had invited the Arabs to subdue Romania ; and
Sempad, although a Roman patrician and com-
mander holding the same rank, exchanges his alle-
giance, and allows Southern Armenia to fall to the
Arabs.

Armenian § 4. We may suppose that the Romanising party

pretenders emigrated into the empire and the imperial service
sovereigns from a land overrun by unbelievers. At any rate,
(700-850} at the influence of Armenia is henceforward continuous
and consistent. Armenian birth seems to have been
the chief recommendation of the idle and luxurious
Vardan or Bardanitzes (Anon. Cod. Coislin.), who
reigns as Philippicus (711—713); Leo III., if not a
native in descent, possessed strong connection and
affinity in Armenia, and his son-in-law, Artavasdus,
is a typical Armenian noble. In 790, Alexius
Musele, governor of the Armeniac theme, is sus-
pected of conspiring with his mutinous legions,
and was flogged, tonsured, and blinded by the
order of Constantine VI. These native (?) levies
were the determined opposers of the claims of
Irene ; and the too dutiful emperor deprived him-
self of strong Armenian support when he insisted
on the recognition of his Greek mother's title.
Vardan, another compatriot, rebels against the first
Nicephorus, and Arsaber, patrician and quaestor,
who revolted in 808, belongs to the same race.
Armenia has its first legitimate ruler in Ghevond,
who ruled as Leo V. from 813 to 820, son-in-law
of Arsaber. And in this connection a citation from
Father Chamich's history *• should not be omitted :

1 St. M. on Lebeau, vol. xii. 355, 409, 431.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 341

" In this age, three Armenians were raised at different Armenian
times to the imperial throne of the Greeks. Two pa^ender9
of them, Vardan and Arshavir, only held this lofty sovereigns
station for a few days. The third, Levond, an (700-850) at
Arzrunian, reigned seven years. Not long after y%{
Prince Manuel, of the Mamigonian tribe, won great
renown with the emperor Theophilus for his warlike
skill and valour." This Arzrunian family with which
Leo V. claims connection was supposed to have
issued from the parricide sons of Esarhaddon,
Adrammelech and Sharezer.

The Mamigonian Manuel became a member of the
Council of Regency during Michael III.'s minority;
and it was necessary to support the claims of that
extraordinary upstart, Basil " the Macedonian," by
appealing to his ancient descent from Armenian
royalty. This curious fiction was a concession to
the Asiatic and aristocratic prejudice then dominant
in Constantinople ; and is the strongest testimony
that we possess to the complete seizure of the govern-
ment in the middle of the ninth century by Armenian
personality and tradition.

§ 5. After this short and general survey we shall Summary of
examine each period in detail, from the age of conclusi<ms-
Justinian to the last 'years of our allotted span,
and even encroach on the Comnenian period, and
surpass the limits of the eleventh century. From
this inquiry we invite adhesion to the following
conclusions: (i) That the Armenians succeeded to
the place and functions of the Pannonian or Illyrian
sovereigns (250-678), and became the defenders of
the imperial frontier on the East ; (2) that this race,
strenuous, prolific, and feudal, formed a compact
military party, in whose eyes the prestige of the
empire and the survival of Roman culture depended
on the generous nourishment of 'national armies and
defence ; (3) that to the scanty and precarious bar-
barian levies of the time of Belisarius succeeded a
native force of provincial militia, recruited in the

342 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Summary of countries they defended (during the development of
conclusions. the thematic system, c. 650-800) ; (4) that the vitality
of the empire was due not so much to the useful
role of the civilian prefect and judge (a class almost
extinct by 650), as to the new vigour and loyal
allegiance of the Armenian immigrants and settlers ;
(5) that this warrior-class, handing on military
skill and valour from father to son, maintained a
silent but truceless conflict with Greek orthodoxy,
monachism, and the civilians who starved the war-
chest ; (6) that later Byzantine history becomes an
interesting spectacle of the vicissitudes of this contest,
and culminates (it may be said) in the scandalous
treatment of Romanus IV. (1071) ; (7) that the
whole spirit of this invading race was " feudal/'
that is, attached great weight to descent, family
connection, landed possessions, and vassals ; (8) that
feudalism infects (or transforms) the Roman insti-
tutions, presenting us with the glorious epic of
Phocas, Zimisces, and Basil, and the constant pre-
tensions of certain noble families, if not to sovereignty,
at least to actual and responsible control ; (9) that,
while as a rule nationality and local prejudice vanish
in the lofty atmosphere of the throne, the Byzantine
monarchs are Armenian in actual birth or un-
mistakable sympathies ; (10) that the strong armies
of the Eastern frontier are the chief (if not the
invariable) arbiters of the succession, and are seen to
dictate heirs to a failing, or policy to an incompetent,
dynasty, from 700 to the accession of the Comneni.1

1 Feudalism implies a union of land-tenure, warlike exercises, and that
personal loyalty which attaches the strong to the service of an individual,
at a time when the notion of the abstract State or Commonwealth is in-
comprehensible. Gelzer (in his " Abstract of Byzantine Imperial History ")
may indeed complain that under Zimisces (969) we have to note a retrogres-
sion of empire and an expansion of feudalism, while the Roman military
and civil State takes on a military and aristocratic aspect. But he might
have placed this obvious and significant symptom much earlier. The
Pretenders of the ninth century belonged to the new military caste,
enriched by ample allotment of vacant land in the east of Lesser Asia.
The throne of the Amorian sovereigns (820-867) is supported by heroes

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 343

EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA DOWN TO THE
FIRST PERIOD OF JUSTINIAN I. (540 A.D.)

§ 1. The real centre and interest of this period in Armenia in

the imperial history lies in the East. The connection the new

•it ,1 TTT , • i-r- • i T , • • expert service

with the West is largely artificial. Justinian recon- 0fRome,

quered the ancient capital, and Leo III. lost it ; but
these events had little influence on men and society
in the East', certainly none upon the political de-
velopment which we are now attempting to trace.
Never did the city of Constantine look westward ;
she preserved, and still maintains to-day, her per-
sistent Orientation. The men who by adoption
joined the Roman Commonwealth, and entered into
the Roman tradition with eager loyalty, were not
Italians, will soon cease even to be Thracians and
Illyrians, or even Dardanians and Pannonians of
the hardy Balkan stock of Decius, Diocletian, Valen-
tinian, and the house of Justin. The empire (as we
so often have occasion to remark) was specialist and
supra-national. It knew nothing of race or family,

of Asiatic breed and Roman traditions. Nor, again, is it possible for the
historian to regret the new anti-centralising and anti-civil tendencies.
Great posts became once more almost sovereign, at least vassal, States.
The peace-party of menials and officials offered no substitute for an aggres-
sive policy which was also the most prudent course. Praise has been
lavished on the civil service of the empire ; yet it is but just to apportion
the merit carefully between the two rival departments. The conquests
of the feudal or chivalrous party enabled the civilians to enjoy and
monopolise the world's riches (960-1025) for half a century unchallenged.
But the war-party alone understood the true needs of the State, and,
judging from their actual experience, would not be put off by the real
or affected ignorance of a historian like Psellus or a dilettante like
Constantine Ducas (1059-1067). The strong arm was still indis-
pensable for the maintenance of law and order, for that civilian pro-
cedure which existed nowhere else on earth except in China. There is
little sign of mere feudal anarchy and individualism in the great Armenian
champions of the empire ; but the official class and the clergy hated and
feared them. Feudalism gave the empire a long respite and a glorious
sunset ; and it was not the fault of the Comneni, but of the age, that they
became the unwilling destroyers of the old Roman system.

344 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Armenia in and at this time little of creed or religion — for the

the new ministers and historians of Justinian are dubious
expert service _, . , . J , .

of Rome. Christians — and the great code is singularly free

from all traces of Christian influence. Work had to
be done, and it mattered little who performed it.
But it must be well done ; continuous training, and a
sort of school — of law, of arms, or of letters — became
the rule. The army-corps in the anarchy of 235-
285 kept alive the memories of Roman discipline,
a certain patriotic simplicity, and some rough
rules of honour. Constantine's civil service, and the
punctilious ranks and duties of the court, had incul-
cated a definite and immobile routine. The growing
demand for central supervision resulted in a body of
civilians without initiative, but singularly faithful to a
corporate spirit which dictated all their phrases and
acts. The ecclesiastical caste naturally existed as a
thing apart, and drew to itself those who were ex-
cluded from the other branches of State service.
The unhappy curial colleges were kept alive and
compact not merely by direct and tyrannical force,
but by the whole tendency of a specialising age.
The military caste (of which Justinian, perhaps not
unwisely, showed some distrust) formed another well-
trained corps, solid and continuous in method, precise
in promotion. Who are the new actors on the
scene ? Who, in the dearth of recruits or violent
depopulation of the empire, will take up the different
posts as representatives of the imperial tradition ?
It will be found that at least in one department of
State the land of Armenia is closely concerned.
From the time of Justinian onwards, the best soldiers
of the empire will be Armenians. Usurpers and
pretenders, too, will belong to the same race, and
when the throne is vacant there will seldom be
wanting an Armenian candidate. The customs and
beliefs of this remote country will exercise the
strongest influence on " Rome." Here will be learned
the lessons of defence from a feudal military caste

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 345

which had long been extinct within the borders of Armenia in
the empire. There will enter into Roman life a f^ ™twservice
foreign element not to be gainsaid, which will take of Rome.
the place of the Teutons, Heruls, and Gepids who
had once formed the heart of the Roman armies.
There will be witnessed a silent but resolute duel
between the Hellenic spirit, now orthodox-Christian,
and the simpler Protestantism of the Armenian
mountaineers. The eighth and ninth centuries will
be the chief scene of this conflict ; the attempt of
Iconoclasm to revert to a religious practice and belief,
simpler and more Roman. From Armenia came
also (i) the tendency to hereditary succession in the
imperial title, and in the great feudal estates of Asia
Minor ; (2) the strong military and aggressive spirit
which awoke in the Basilian house the fires of old
Roman conquest ; and (3) that strangely un-Roman
principle of the Shogunate that would reserve the
chief dignity to a certain family, but deliver effective
control to a colleague or recognised generalissimo.
The competition for this latter post, not to be settled
but by the sword, will lead to that clan-rivalry of
warlike families which issues in the victory of the
Comneni. And it is here I have ventured to place
the extinction of the genuine imperial tradition.
It is my present purpose to inquire into this gradual
admission of Armenians into the armies and society
of " Rome " ; to trace in the tedious wars with
Persia the real cause of the futile and inconclusive
strife ; and to examine the part played by this new
nationality in the East, that succeeded to the cham-
pionship of the empire which was undertaken in the
West by the Teutonic race.

§ 2. The turning-point in the relations of Armenia Christianity,
and Rome was the conversion of King Tiridat in *^
the third century. In this acceptance of the Christian °and of
faith Armenia took the lead, and set an example estrangement.
which Rome under Constantine was not slow to
follow. It is undoubted that this community of

346 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

Christianity, creed brought the country into closer connection

ITalliawe with the Romans> and severed it from its natural
and of allies and neighbours. Yet the peculiar form finally

estrangement. taken by Armenian Christianity served rather to
isolate than to bring their Church into a full Chris-
tian fellowship. Especially under Heraclius are the
separatist tendencies of all Eastern Christians ap-
parent. Neither Syria nor Egypt nor Armenia
recognised the established church of the capital
with its Hellenic orthodoxy ; and it was disunion
and jealousy between these branches that admitted
the infidels so easily. Still, the immigration of the
warrior class, and the constant interference of Rome
in Armenian affairs, were largely due to this common
belief. The Arsacid Christian monarchy confronted
the new Sassanid dynasty, predominant since 226
in Persia, a Magian revival, and entirely hostile to
the Arsacid house. The extension of Persian influ-
ence implied the propaganda of fire-worship and
the persecution of converts to the Gospel, some-
times even of native and hereditary Christians.
These were thrown into the arms of Rome ; and
Armenia was an occasional casus belli, and a constant
source of suspicion and disquiet between the two
empires, as will readily be seen in the ensuing sketch.
Thus religion partly united and partly severed this
debatable country from the body of the empire.
But in spite of the curious vassaldom and imperial
investiture under early Caesars, the real intercourse
did not begin until both powers had adopted a
common religious belief. To make clear the char-
acter of this preponderating influence on the Eastern
world, I shall have to go back to very primitive times
to account for the peculiar features of Armenian
society and civilisation.
Origin and § 3. Various modern writers (amongst others Wi-

TftLhiSt0ry lamowitz-Mollendorff) refer the origin of this people

Armenians, to a great Phrygio-Thracian immigration from the

West. The rough " Dorians " had ousted an earlier

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 347

culture, and established themselves in its place ; Origin and

survivors who escaped serfdom travelled eastwards. e0^ehtstor

But the Phrygio-Thracian tribes went farther, and Armenians.

became the ancestors of the Armenian race.1 Their

own traditions, wildly improbable as history, are

curiously typical of their native belief ; they sprang

from Haik, son of Thargamus — the Togarmah of

Scripture, grandson of Noah, and were thus lape-

tids, their earliest indigenous dynasty being certainly

traced to Japhet.2 But two chief clans boasted of a

singular and perhaps discreditable descent ; from the

intercourse of David and Bathsheba, as yet illicit, or

from the parricides of Sennacherib, Adrammelech

and Sharezer, " who fled into the land of Armenia "

after their father's murder. Clan-feeling, intense

pride in families developing into tribal chieftaincy, and

finally into feudal principality, such is the chief note

of Armenian society. And it is little wonder that in

such an assembly of equal tribes no one family should

have attained supremacy ; in a proud and feudal

community a foreign dynasty must rule, because no

one single member will submit to an equal. The

difficulties as well as the vitality of the Armenian race

will be due to strong, jealous, and exclusive pride. It

has a sense of nationality unknown in the artificial

11 Roman " commonwealth, which asked no questions

about birth. It was ruled by turbulent nobles,

full of vigour and public spirit ; whereas Rome,

since the adoption of an imperial government, had

set itself to weaken the pride of caste and the power

of families, substituting for claims of descent an

1 The Armenians were not without affinity to the Phrygians in the
central plateau of Asia Minor, and these again are allied to the inhabitants
of Thrace and Macedonia. These peoples are non- Oriental in their char-
acter and culture ; and Armenian history is the struggle of an outpost of
the West.

2 The Seljukian Turks are equally confident of their origin from the
scriptural patriarchs. The Ghuss (OSfoi) tribe traced back to Ghuss, son
or grandson of Japhet (Yafeth), son of Noah (Nuh). The enemies of the
Ghussidse believed that this early hero had stolen the rain-stone, which Turk,
also a son of Japhet, inherited from his father.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Origin and
early history
of the
Armenians.

Rivals of
Assyria.

official hierarchy where personal cleverness went for
everything. It is easy to foresee the result of the
fusion of the two. The later period of Roman
history is the record of a long contest : on the one
hand, the ministry of isolated instruments, the eunuch-
celibate or the priest ; on the other, the closely knit
family : the ideal state and the feudal clan. Victory
will lie with the more natural association ; the last two
centuries before Alexius are just the chronicle of
notable generations, not merely on the throne, but
in the military class, in the great land-holding section
which was now refusing to be a mere payer of
taxes.

As late as the accomplished Orientalist, Saint
Martin, the old legend of Semiramis, her visit, con-
quest, and death in Armenia had to be fitted in some-
how. Instead, modern research gives us the historic
kingdom of Urartu, round about Lake Van, wrest-
ing provinces from Assyria during the throes of revolu-
tion (c. 750 B.C.) ; Tiglath Pileser marching in reprisal
against Sarduris II. at the head of a powerful con-
federacy, and defeating (744), with a capture of
73,000 prisoners; ten years later assaulting Turushpa,
Sarduris' capital city on Lake Van ; Rusas, the new
King of Ur, again, under Sargon, stirring up the Hittite
neighbours to rivalry (716, 715), and even sowing
sedition in the northern provinces of Assyria ; seeing
his allies one by one reduced, flying to impenetrable
mountain-plateaux in Armenia, and at last falling on
his sword in despair. This Haikian (or earliest native)
dynasty was not without its mythical or actual
glory. Tigranes (Dikran) is the equal ally of Cyrus,
as Barvir had revolted against Assurbanipal.1 It was

1 A general summary of chief events : Assault of Assyria under Tigl.
Pil. I. begins noo. Shalmanezer II. first to plan annexation, 860, and
Arame's dynasty ends. Sarduris I. begins a new house, and resists Assyria,
850-830. S halm. III. makes six ineffectual expeditions, c. 780. Argistis
and Sarduris II. continue to humble Assyria and annex territory. Tigl.
Pil. III. curbs and reduces to old limits, c. 735. Argistis II. reduced
to a small district round Lake Van.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (330-1 B.C.) 349

brought to a close only by the irresistible march of The Arsacid
Alexander (328). Subject to the Seleucid monarchy, ^^
Armenia broke into rebellion and secured a short A.D.).
period of autonomy (c. 318-285 B.C.), and just a
century later declared its independence of Antiochus
the Great under its governor Artaxias (190). Fifty
years later again, the Parthian sovereign put his
brother Val-arsaces on the throne, and the great
Arsacid dynasty begins in the latter branch, which
far outlasts the better - known house of Persia.
Tigranes, son-in-law of Mithradates of Pontus, reigns
over Syria, Greater and Lesser Armenia, and some
Parthian provinces ; is entangled in the quarrel with
Rome (which first brings the two powers into con-
nection) ; and is allowed by Pompey, the capable
reorganiser of the East, to retain the North and
Centre, resigning to his son the accretions in the
South-west, Sophene and Gorduene. About the
middle of the first century B.C. Armenia came into
collision with the curiously assorted sovereigns of
Egypt ; Artavasdus, defeated and taken to Alex-
andria by Antony, is put to death by Cleopatra in
30 B.C. Then ensued a time of feudal anarchy, one
hundred and seventy princely families fighting with
each other and raising up (as Tacitus tells us in
"Annals," ii.) some fitful shadow-kings in rapid suc-
cession. Germanicus solemnly invests one with the
diadem at Artaxata in A.D. 17 ; and already the
country is more akin to Rome than to Parthia nimium
vicina. Yet it was ready enough to give welcome to
the cast-out Arsacid Artaban (possibly on account
of his Roman education as well as his undoubted
lineage). Under Nero and Vespasian, Erovant I.
(c. 60-80), Arsacid on the female side, unites Armenia
and builds two cities, Erovantoshad and Pakaran ;
and Ardashir (of a more legitimate Arsacid line)
appears later under the alternate suzerainty of Rome
and Parthia, scarcely recognisable in the historians
as Exedarus.

350 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Romans and § 4. In the first quarter of the third century A.D.,
2-miSr the northern branch of the Arsacids had been more
independence powerful than the southern. Chosroes the Great of
extinguished Armenia takes up arms on behalf of his cousins
against the Sassanids (226) ; but on his murder by
a renegade member of his own clan, Armenia passed
under the victor's yoke (250), easily yielding to
foreign sway owing to its feudal distractions. Tiridat
of the ousted line, son of Chosroes, flies to Rome,
common asylum, like Paris to-day, for displaced
monarchs ; and the burlesque Augustan historians
of this period say nothing to the point on an event
so pregnant with grave issues. It was perhaps
this restoration to his father's throne by Roman
help that explains the extreme bitterness of Sapor
against the empire ; the captivity and death of
Valerian. The new king, at first, like Decius and
Aurelian, a persecutor of the Christians, meets
Gregory the Illuminator, national hero of the story
of Armenian evangelisation. The saint cures the
king, and converts the people. For just a century
onwards, until the " first partition " under Theo-
dosius (385), Armenia is a scene of perpetual con-
flict between Rome and the Sassanids. It cost the
lives of two emperors, Valerian and Julian (261,
363) ; and Jovian, after the latter's death, has to
purchase a safe retreat by the disgraceful surrender
of five provinces beyond the Euphrates, with the
important and thoroughly Roman frontier-towns,
Nisibis and Singara, and the fertile lands of Arzanene
and Gorduene. The treaty of Theodosius definitely
ceded all fanciful or legitimate rights over Eastern
or Greater Armenia, and incorporated Lesser Armenia
into the empire (385). But neither province received
an alien viceroy ; in both a scion of the Arsacids was
set up as a governor or vassal-prince; Arsaces III.
in Roman, Chosroes III. in Pers Armenia, as it is
henceforth habitually called. From this year may
be dated the gradual infiltration of the Armenian

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (225-440) 351

race into Roman territory, expelled by religious in- Romans and
tolerance or encouraged by the military prizes of PJ^%££?a ™
the empire. The century (400-500) from Arcadius independence
to Anastasius passed without any protracted warfare extinguished
between the two great powers ; and we are prepared
to accept the story that Arcadius begged Isdigerd
(succ. c. 400) to become tutor and guardian to his
son, in spite of Agathias' denial ; did not Heraclius
appeal in like manner to the chivalrous feeling of
the Avar Khan, when he left young Heraclius-
Constantine as regent in a capital almost denuded
of garrison ? Did not Cabades propose in vain to
the prosaic Justin I. that he should adopt Chosroes,
and did not the refusal precipitate the war, long
preparing, between the two rivals ? Armenia, " per-
petual source of annoyance " (as Bury rightly calls
it), was undoubtedly the cause of the brief war The religious
tinder Theodosius II. (420-1). It was the old
story ; Varanes II. had attempted to proselytise
Persarmenia, and had begun a persecution of Chris-
tians. Nothing happened of any consequence ; it
rarely did in these interminable and purposeless
wars on the Euphrates. Peace for a hundred years
was finally proclaimed by the optimistic diplomats
of the two kingdoms (422). In 428 the government
of Persarmenia was altered ; instead of a native
prince, a Persian governor or Martzban was sent.
It is possible to explain this in two ways ; (i) either
(as Bury supposes) the Armenians begged the king
to send a polite foreigner in place of an unpopular
member of the old royal line (a request by no means
uncommon or unnatural) ; or (2) the tyrannical
sovereign extinguished the last embers of independ-
ence by annexing on the same footing as all other
Persian provinces. Isdigerd II. (440) is very anxious
to convert Armenia to the Zoroastrian faith, but
meets with no success, chiefly owing to the staunch-
ness of the Mamigonian clan (a notable house
throughout Armenian history, and, if rumour may

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.A

The religious

difficulty

(400-500).

Cabades the
Socialist,
renews the
war with
Rome.

be believed, deriving descent from a Chinese outlaw
and immigrant of the dispossessed Han dynasty !) *
Balas, the next Sassanid, wisely gave back liberty of
conscience and worship in Armenia, and restored
the status to that of vassal-ally ; Vahan (Baai/*/?) the
Mamigonian is made prince-governor, and the step
taken in 428 (whatever its significance) reversed.
Balas died in 487, four years before Zeno the
Isaurian, bequeathing peace to the rival empires and
internal contentment to Armenia.

§ 5. Plato's dream and prayer has rarely been
realised or granted ; a philosopher-king is happily
a rarity, and invariably a disappointment. Neither
Marcus nor Julian could encourage (by their example
or success) the exercise of reflection upon a throne ;
for while their virtues were their own, their failures
may be distinctly traced to their creeds. But it is
recorded of one Roman emperor and one Sassanid
king that they desired to put in practice the
theories laid down in Plato's ideal commonwealth.
Gallienus was prepared to assent to Plotinus' re-
quest for the loan of a ruinous Italian city, that a
model community, like the Quakers or Oneidists,
might be tested. Cabades, the new king of Persia,
fell under the influence of a convinced and earnest
Socialist, a strange and repulsive amalgam of the
Socrates and the Thrasymachus of the " Republic."
He bears a curious resemblance to a certain Chi-
nese statesman, Waganchi, who likewise converted a
despot, and received license to put his views in force
over the vast and silent population. This alliance
of despotism with Socialist visions is therefore no
novelty ; indeed it is perhaps the only expedient by

1 Colonies of Chinese are by no means unknown in Armenia. Was
the famous Georgian royal family Chinese in origin? About 250 A.D.,
when the Goths, sweeping Europe, were about to annihilate Decius and
his army, comes into the western part of Asia a Han of royal descent ;
in 260, Tiridates gives him the province or district of Taron, of which
mention will be frequent. His name was Mam-kon, and he became the
head of the Mamigonian clan.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (440-500) 353

which these views can ever be imposed on mankind, Cabades the
in themselves curiously unsatisfying to every human f^^^i
instinct. Men are neither born equal, nor do they war with
believe themselves to be so ; and it is only under a
despotism where all are alike slaves, that the auto-
matism and docility, requisite for the Socialistic
order, can be found. Cabades, carefully preserving
his own autocracy, like Frederic of Prussia or
Joseph II., posed as the enlightened foe of privilege,
the apostle of Liberalism. " Women and property
must be held in common ; so-called ' crimes ' are
merely the artificial creation of an unjust society ;
and right and wrong lie elsewhere than in the con-
ventional standard." The nobles, about the close of
the century, united to depose a monarch holding
such views, and left him ample leisure to enjoy a
practical application of his own tenets. Restored
(not unlike Justinian II. two centuries after) by the
aid of the Huns to his " unequal " and privileged
rank (500), he showed more caution, reserved his
free-thought and anarchic dreams for private, and
perhaps seized with eagerness an occasion for renew-
ing the Roman war. The pretext was the arrears
in the Roman subsidy, promised for the joint
defence of the Caspian gates or passes of Caucasus.
Tradition made out that Cabades was offended,
because the prudent old money-lender Anastasius
refused a loan, intended to pay off his dangerous
" Ephthalite " allies. At any rate, in 502, eighty
years after the hundred years' peace, hostilities broke
out ; and Persia was soon in possession of the cities
of the march-land, Martyropolis, Theodosiopolis, and
Amida. Competent authorities believe (and I am
content to accept their judgment) that in the next
ensuing three years of war the Roman side was at
a disadvantage, chiefly owing to the jealous policy
of dividing the supreme command. Still, Celer
the Illyrian, magister officiorum (why not militum ?)
achieved some success in Arzanene and recovered

VOL. II. Z

354 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Cabades the
Socialist
renews the
war with
Rome.

Feudal policy
of Justin,
520, and
eastern cam-
paigns of
Belisarius.

the fortress of Amida ; while in 507 Anastasius built
the great citadel Dara on the site of a tiny village.
(We may perhaps here notice the last Roman cham-
pions from the Balkans. We have this Illyrian ;
twenty years later we find Belisarius in command
in Persia, a Slav from "Germania," a Teutonic
colony in Illyricum ; nearly forty years later (544)
we find in an Eastern command Nazares from Illyria,
TWV ev T\Xv plots (TTpaTiwTcov ap^a)v. But in spite of
Heruls and Gepids in the hasty levies of the famous
general, the day for Goths or Teutons is over in
the Eastern empire. We shall read of no more
Thracians, Dacians, or Dardanians ; the house of
Justin, extinct in 578, is succeeded by an Asiatic,
Maurice the Cappadocian, from Arabissus, almost
within Lesser Armenia. So on the palace-guard of
sturdy Thracians have followed levies of strange
Isaurians and Armenians, who to the number of
nearly 4000 keep watch in Justinian's palace.1)

§ 6. It was Justin I., about 520, who initiated or
rather revived the policy of welcoming ethnic kings
as vassals under the suzerainty of the empire ; Tzath,
king of the Lazi of Colchis, being received under
its protection, after paying a kind of feudal homage.
Persia found a new motive for war in this interference
with her natural allies or subjects ; under Justinian I.
a great army 30,000 strong invaded and ravaged
Mesopotamia, while Belisarius, now appearing for
the first time, suffered a defeat. In 529 Persians, with
their Saracen ally Alamundarus, plunder the country
up to Antioch ; and Belisarius in the Roman reprisals
of the ensuing year wins his first laurels at Dara, —
notable as the first defeat of the Persians for many
years. The new emperor had started his Eastern
policy by appointing a magister militum for Armenia
(<TTpaTrj\dTw) ; Sittas, husband of Theodora's sister,
Comito, held the office, but in 530 Dorotheus was

1 Though when the dignity was sold to peaceable but conceited
civilians, the guard was found to exist only on paper.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (500-540) 355

acting as his lieutenant. Nor was Justinian backward Feudal policy
in securing other loyal and gratuitous allies for the SCjf"*^
frontier ; he gave the title of patricins (as Anastasius eastern cam-
to Clovis) to Arethas (Harith), king of the Ghassanid Pai9ns °f
Bedawins and ancestor (?) of Emperor Nicephorus I.
(802-811). This chieftain continued a faithful ally
of Rome during a long reign (530—572), as a contem-
porary of Chosroes (530—579). Once more Persians
and Alamundar raid in 531, and after the doubtful
result of the battle of Callinicum, Belisarius was
recalled ; it is difficult to say whether justly. For
clearly the suspicious policy of divided command
thwarted any united action. Mundus the Gepid
succeeds him ; and the new king Chosroes is quite
content to make an Endless Peace, while the subsidy
(11,000 Ibs. of gold) is faithfully promised on the
part of Rome for the defence of the Caucasian
passes. But the brilliant successes of Justinian's early
years, over faction at home and Goth and Vandal
abroad, roused Chosroes' envious fear (540). The
Gothic king Vitiges sent envoys to the Persian court
to implore help against the common danger, the
universal autocrat ; and the two distant wars have
an appreciable influence on each other. The de-
spairing struggle of Gothic freedom is lengthened
out by the diversion of troops to the East ; it is hard
to say in which quarter the efforts of Rome's " only
general " were the more needed.

§ 7. It is possible to trace to the fiscal system of Cause of
Rome the reaction of the middle period (540-550) j£££ta'
which set back the triumphs of Justinian in East and East and
West. Alexander the Logothete estranged loyal Italy Wef^ fiscal
and let in the Goths again ; Armenia is found de-
nouncing the exactions of the collectors, and pro-
fessing her willingness to acknowledge Chosroes. It
does not become one who lives under the perils of
a democratic budget and the costliness of popular
government to speak hastily of Roman imperial finance.
Where we have accurate figures the amount would

356 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Came of not seem excessive ; but it is clear that the passage
'faifurein,8 ^rom tne intermittent suzerainty of barbarian king or
East and even Sassanid to an expensive system of centralised
West: fiscal officialism must seem vexatious and oppressive. It
would be mere impertinence for any modern writer
in a " free " State to blame the empire (or censure
a " despotic " form of rule) for showing the natural
and inevitable tendency of civilised society ; namely,
to centre in the State all the resources of citizens, all
the springs of action, all the natural riches of the
country. The Roman Empire in this sixth century
was absolutely modern, and indeed democratic in
tone and attitude ; it overrated its strength, and
undertook the colossal burden which mischievous
dreamers to-day would have us transfer from collec-
tive shoulders to an irresponsible centre. It multi-
plied its duties and functionaries : the subject class
paid. Italy, under the mild control of Gothic king
or the benevolent pauperism of the Holy See, was
ill-prepared for the new demands. Armenia, a
feudal society (as we must again repeat), regarded
even a modest contribution to imperial needs as an
imposition and a disgrace. Amazaspes, the Roman
governor, was slain by Acacius, and such was the
Roman weakness or preoccupation elsewhere, that
he was allowed to succeed his victim. But the
demagogue in responsible office is a curious spec-
tacle (as we may learn from Sardou's Rabagas).
Money had to be collected, and the indignant and
protesting Acacius was now the collector ; he too
was killed, and Sittas, sent on a message of concilia-
tion, shares the same fate. Armenia appeals to
Chosroes for help ; and could point to the encroach-
ments of Rome, as proof of a real danger to Persia ;
for Justinian had reduced the wild Pontic tribe of
the Tzanni and had set a dux over the military forces
of Lazica. For the next few years the real centre
of the eastern cyclone lies in this remote kingdom.
The details of this Lazic war, told with leisured

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (500-540) 357

and scholarly grace by Agathias, passed over with Cause of
weariness by Gibbon, retold with redundant minute- j^JJ^'*
ness by Lebeau, and again with critical judgment East and
by Bury, — need not detain us now. Like most West: fiscal
episodes in the long feud of Rome and Parthia, *
it has no conclusion, no meaning at first sight ; a
mere desultory skirmish over a " sphere of influence "
claimed simultaneously by two great powers. Yet
grave interests were at stake. It was a part of the
great imperialist policy of Justinian to secure vassals
and allies on the outskirts of the realm. His uncle
had set the example ; and perhaps the astute nephew
had secretly inspired. The friendship of the Lazic
king would secure Roman Armenia and act as a
set-off to Persian influence. Justinian was penurious
in the extreme of the lives of his citizen-soldiers, of
the number of troops on a foreign expedition, of the
initiative or responsibility entrusted to individual com-
manders. He welcomed gladly any substitute for
his own dear troops or suspected generals. The
Lazi, the Tzans, the Apsilians become dependent
on the empire ; chieftains of Herul and Hun are
baptized, the emperor, as it were, standing sponsor ;
the Caucasian Abasgi and the Nobadae are converted,
and to complete the isolation of Persia, bishops and
clergy are sent to the Axumites. The king of Iberia
comes to the capital and is received with rich gifts
by Justinian and Theodora. The spread of Chris-
tianity was part of Justinian's imperialism : he was
pope as well as Caesar.

RELATIONS OF ROME AND ARMENIA FROM
JUSTINIAN TO HERACLIUS (540-620)

§ 1. Such a policy of Imperialism, flattering to Loyal service

these remote princes allied to the majesty of Rome, of Armenia

.. \ f ., ,' totheempire:

bore immediate fruit. An Army List of Justinian s in the East

later years would display in a striking manner the and Italy.

358 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Loyal service predominance of Armenians. In 540, the garrison
Ofoihe"em{ire - °^ ^ura on *ke Euphrates *s unc*er an Armenian
in theSasT ' commandant ; so too with the fleet of Thrace two
and Italy. years later. Phazas the Iberian prince has an im-
portant post in the Eastern armies ; he is nephew
of Peranes, the son of the Iberian king Gourgenes,
at this time a refugee at Constantinople (in whose
name it is difficult to avoid tracing the later name
of the inland Caucasian country). In the same year
(542) Belisarius sent on a mission in the East
Adolius, son of the assassin Acacius ; and we wonder
that Armenian families should have given up their
own names and adopted the weak quadrisyllables of
the later empire. In 543, when Chosroes thought
of attacking the Roman province by way of Pers-
armenia, we find in the Roman army, 30,000
strong, Narses of the Camsar clan, and Isaac, brother
of Adolius.1 In the familiar weakness of the Roman
command, the two confederate generals have little
chance ; Narses is killed in battle, and Peranes the
Iberian seeking to ravage Taron (Tapavvwv Xw^om), on
south and west of Lake Van, has to return from a
successful foray on news of the defeat. — The result
of the confederacy of East and West against Rome is
evident when the Lazic troubles begin (545). The
costly system of frontier forts, Martyropolis, Satala,
Sebaste, Colonia, and others, overtaxed Justinian's
treasury, and an expensive restoration relaxed the
vigour of the Italian war. But the emperor was
perhaps more than indemnified by the loyal service of
Armenians far from their homes. Isaac an Armenian,
of Camsar and Arsacid families, brother of Narses

1 It is at this point that we may notice the emphatic witness of Procopius
to the prosperous state of Armenia under Persian sway ; Dovin, or Aotfjfttos,
the capital, is eight days' journey from Theodosiopolis (Arzeroum), and
stands in a smiling and fertile plain, covered with thriving villages at short
intervals on a high-road busy with mercantile traffic between India and
China and the West. Dovin is near the site of ancient Artaxata and lies
north of the Araxes : it maintained its dignity as the capital for eight
hundred years.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 359

(who fell fighting in the East) ; Gitacius with a small Loyal service
band of Armenian fellow-countrymen, " who knew ^f^T"^^, .
nothing but his native tongue" (as Procopius tells us); in the East
Pacurius, grandson of Gourgenes, the Iberian ex-king, and Italy-
and son of Peranes ; Varazes with a little cohort
of eighty ; and Phazas, cousin of Pacurius, already
seen in Roman service in 542 ; — such are the Oriental
officers in Italy. — But we must turn once more to The Vassal
the East (549) and the Lazic entanglement. Gubazes f^ind
the king is the son of a " Roman " wife ; it being sub-infeuda-
a long-established custom (e/c iraXaiov) for the Lazic tlon-
dynasty to accept honorary posts in the imperial
palace and to marry with the daughters of senators
on the emperor's choice or approval. It is quite
possible that Gubazes may have actually served in
person as a Silentiarius ; though in a later age similar
posts, as that of Curopalat, were purely titular and
implied no duties. Indeed, though he had been
for long a vassal of Persia, he demanded, naively
enough, the payment of arrears of salary as Usher
of the Palace since his accession to the throne !
For the Persian yoke was unpopular (OVK avroyvw-
jjiovovvres, Procop.) ; and when Chosroes tried to
murder Gubazes, the country flung itself into the
arms of Rome. Mermeroes a Persian, forced to
retire, begins tedious intrigue (551) against the
Romans; and until 555 there are ceaseless and
indecisive hostilities. — We may notice here the sub-
infeudation then prevalent ; the little peoples of
Scymnia and Swania, in the interior of the Caucasus,
are subject to the Lazic king, but are governed by
native princes bound to homage (apxovres . . . rwv
ojuoeOvwv). When the tribal headship is vacant, word
is sent to the Lazic king, who is then empowered
by the Roman emperor to invest whom he will, pro-
vided it be one of the same tribe. It is clear that
the ascending hierarchy of feudal obligation was
well known to the Eastern peoples of the sixth
century.

Armenian
valour in
Africa : first
Armenian
plot: recall
and con-
spiracy of
Artaban
(548}.

360 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

§ 2. Meantime, Armenian bravery had not been
without employment in Africa. Here, as in Italy, the
first rapid successes had been followed by disastrous
reaction. In 543 we find the two sons of John the
Arsacid despatched, John and Artaban ; and this
family would seem to have passed into the imperial
service when Arzanene had thrown off the Persian
yoke and surrendered to Rome. John was soon
killed by the mutinous Moors ; but for Artaban was
reserved a romantic and troubled career. With his
nephew Gregoras and Ardashir (Artaxerxes) he joins,
or pretends to join, the curious rebellion of Gontharis
the rvpavvos in Carthage. But seizing a fit moment
they murder the rebel and his friends, and shout the
loyal salutations to Justinian. As a reward of this
service Artaban is allowed to leave his post and
return to the capital, lured by the fascinating
Prejecta, a member of the imperial family. But
disappointed passion or ambition made him a con-
spirator (548). Theodora, finding that he is already
married, disposes otherwise of Prejecta, and forces
him to take back his earlier and rejected spouse,
also of Arsacian descent (o/xo^uXo?). Artabanus in
high dudgeon listened to the murmurs of a youthful
kinsman, Arsaces, who had been publicly whipped
and paraded through the streets on a camel for
treasonable correspondence with the Persian court.
Smarting with the disgrace, Arsaces dwelt lightly on
his own wrongs, but dilated rather on national
grievances, the unhappy condition of those Arme-
nians who fell a prey to the Roman tax-gatherer.
They decide to assassinate Justinian ; the plot is
discovered ; and the mild emperor is content with
despoiling Artaban of his dignity and confining his
impetuous relatives within the palace for a time.
I would throw no doubts on the mercifulness of an
untiring prince and a good man ; but we may well
suppose that a fear of offending the powerful Arme-
nian contingent would reinforce the " imperial clem-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 361

ency," — one of the most glorious and truthful titles Armenian
in use for the later Caesars: six years later (SS4) v?l™r m~ .

J VJJT/ Africa: first

" Chanoranges, a member of the conspiracy (perhaps Armenian

a title of honour at the Persian court), would be Plot: recal1
f T, i j T-» 1- / i ana con-

found serving in Italy against Buccehn s marauders. 8pira€y Of

Such was the first Armenian plot against the life Artaban

and majesty of an emperor ; it will not be the last.
Generally devoted, like the Swiss, in their impersonal
attachment to the empire, and displaying more manly
qualities than any desire for intrigue, the Armenians
on occasion can become dangerous competitors for
the sovereign dignity. In the next century we shall
have the brief and obscure " tyranny " of Mejej or
Mizizius (668), and with increasing frequency can-
didates will propose themselves for the purple : until
in one century there are few pretenders who are not
of this race, and in the next an entire dynasty will
be Armenian in origin and sympathies. We may
complete here the record of the empire's debt to
Armenians on the African shore. Artaban's own
successor was probably a fellow-countrymen, John
Troglita, the hero of the epic of Cresconius Corip-
pus. Now John's brother is a certain Pappus or
Bab, a name common among Armenians, and especi-
ally with the clan of Arsacids. He was the son and
the husband of a princess ; his wife "filia regis erat;
mater quoque filia regis" ; and his own Christian name,
John, is a favourite with the Armenians, who have
ever held in especial veneration the memory of
the Precursor, " Karabied." Such was the tale of
Armenian prowess in Africa.

§ 3. Again turning to the East, John Guzes is very Persarmenia
valiant at the siege of Petra in 550, and loses his life Jjjjf?^,
there the next year in a similar assault. In 551, too, persecution
Aratius appears (Hrahad), Arsacid and Camsar, inJ°ins.the
control of Armenian and Illyrian troops. Arme- empir
nians command the punitive expedition which exacted
vengeance from Rome's seditious subjects in the
Caucasus, the Misimians, and the disorderly Tzanni

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Persarmenia of Pontus ; the army obeyed Varazan the Armenian
religious and Pharsantes the Colchian, one who held the office
persecution of master of the troops in the Lazic court (jULdyivrpog
joins the T£v %v aj\~ TayjmdTcov). This title, like those of
patrician and curopalat, will meet us often, and some-
times in curious disguises, till the close of our history
and the subjugation of the free Christian kingdoms
between the Black and Caspian Seas. — In 562,
another sonorous title was invented for the short and
suspicious armistice between the two powers ; this
time the peace is not u endless " or " for a century," but
" for fifty years." Menander gives with his usual
minuteness the exact terms of a compact so soon
to be violated. — Justin II. (565-578), who showed
an equal desire to lighten the subjects' burden
and to raise the dignity of Rome, assumed a loftier
tone towards the Sassanid than Justinian, mild but
persistent, had ever adopted. Once again the northern
lands, ambigua gens mortalium, as Tacitus well styles
them, supplied an incentive to war. While Swania,
to the great annoyance of the emperor, decides for
union with Persia after a kind of plebiscite, like Rome
on Garibaldi's entrance in 1870; Persarmenia, on
the other hand, begged to be transferred to the
Christian power. This country, once Great Armenia,
had been surrendered, if we may trust the solitary
evidence of Evagrius, by Philippus (244), after the
murder of Gordian III., irpcoyv 'Poj/Woi? /car^/coo? ;
and if this be true, it forms doubtless an episode in
the obscure revolutions which placed Tiridat on the
throne. Definitely recognised as Persian by Theo-
dosius, it had taken little part in the recent wars, and
since the reign of Justin I. at New Rome (518) had
been under the benevolent rule of Mejej (the later
Greek Mi£/£ltoff), a Gnounian prince. He repaired the
mischief of the past, paid regular tribute, saw that
the Christian faith and practice were respected, and
taught Armenians to forget their light vassalage by
securing a greater prosperity than in the days of

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 363

independence, both in numbers and rich com- Persarmenia
merce with India. He remained in charge for ^ej^lous
thirty years (518-548); but Chosroes did not give persecution

the succession to a native Christian prince but to a J°ins the

, . empire.

Zoroastnan. The church was persecuted: magians

were introduced for a subtle or violent propaganda ;
fire-temples were built, even in the especially loyal
Reschdounian canton. Envoys were sent (532) to
remonstrate with the Persian king, and to demand
the strict terms of the compact between King
Valasch (or Balas) and Prince Vahan the Mamigonian.
Chosroes, alarmed at the Gothic successes of Rome,
was prepared to conciliate ; and Ten-Shahpour (cf.
later name Ten-Chosroes, Ta/ux0'0"^) was recalled.
Veshnas-Varanes (552-558) and Varazdat (558-
564) succeed ; and Souren follows them, a member
of the Surenian family, a branch of the Arsacids, to
whom Theophylact gives the title KXijuLardp^rig rfc
' ApjULevlcov TroXtre/a? (the Armenian Goghmanagal).
Once more persecution became a settled policy ;
and Vartan, head of the Mamigonians, set himself
forward as the leader of a revolt, his patriotic feel-
ings roused by a private wrong, — the murder of his
brother Manuel by Surena. He was distinguished
in birth as in military skill, 'Trpov-^cov yevei, al~ia)cr€t,
e/uLTreipla (TTpaTrjyiKy — just those characteristics to be
expected in a race which forced a chivalrous feudal-
ism upon the reluctant institutions of imperial Rome.
The patriarch Moses II. leads a rebellion at Dovin,
the record of which is strangely preserved to us by
.Gregory of Tours. Vartan and Yard (Bardas) com-
plete the attack ; Dovin is taken ; Surena killed ;
and by the end of March 571 Persian soldiers and
priests of the alien creed were exterminated in a
general rising.

§ 4. Armenia, struggling towards independence, Doubtful
sought alliance of her northerly neighbours (TrX^o-fo-
X^jOOt . . . opoeOveis . . . aXAo'<£vAo«, Evagr.) and Persarmenia
the powerful protection of Rome. Justin II. wel- (575-580).

364 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Doubtful comes the envoys, promises to defend as his own
issue of the^ subjects, and pledges never to abandon the authors
qpersarmerda of the revolt to the tender mercies of Persia. Iberia
(575-580). follows the lead, and crosses over to the Roman side ;
for the king of that country we should probably
read Stephen rather than Gourgenes (YopyivQTjt), with
Theophilus of Byzantium. Chosroes sent Deren,
the " Constable of Persia " (Sparabied), to reduce the
disaffected provinces. Being defeated in the first
engagement, he gave way to Bahram (or Varanes)
(the pretender eighteen years later to the throne of
Persia), who at once availed himself of the dis-
sension invariably prevalent in a feudal society of
peers, even when the common liberty is in peril.
Vartan, soon despairing of his venture, retired with his
kinsmen to the Roman capital, and was there treated
with the generous courtesy always extended to dis-
possessed princes. Nothing can well be more tedious
and unedifying than the record of the next seven
or eight years. Anarchy prevailed ; fire and sword
ravaged the country, from which all traces of former
prosperity vanished. The Persian army, under
Mihram and Bahram, is swelled by Caucasian tribes,
Dilemites and Sabirians. Under Marcian the Roman
commander fight Vartan the refugee, the Alans with
their chieftain Saros, Colchians and Abasgians.
Neither great power seemed anxious to push matters
to a final settlement ; Chosroes is glad in 575 to
make peace with the regent, Tiberius II., but wishes
to except the rebels from its benefits. The Roman
generals, Kurs the " Scythian " (or Goth) and Theo-
dosius, attack the Albanians and Sabirians, take
hostages, and secure their brief surrender to the
empire : on their default they return, ravage their
land, and transplant across the Cyrus the faithful
Romanisers, TravotKia /zerom^o^Te? (Menander), — an
early instance of that wholesale change of a settle-
ment which is an interesting but disconcerting
feature in the later history. The Roman army twice

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 365

disbands, either in dislike of a new general or in fear Doubtful
of the emperor's displeasure : it seems a significant ^J
symptom of the contempt of authority which marks Persarmena
the fifty years from Justinian to Heraclius. In 576, (575-550).
the Great King marched out in person to Armenia ;
Taron (an appanage of Vartan's family) he finds a
vast wilderness ; and, losing the great battle of
Melitene, is said to have forbidden a Persian king to
lead his own armies — a prohibition very unlikely,
but singularly parallel with the tendencies of
China and Rome about this time, where Maurice
and Heraclius and Lichi found it difficult to revive
the military side of kingship. Next year (577) the
humiliated kingdom was exposed to Saracen raiders,
acting under the instructions of Rome. Yet the em-
perors do not follow up their successes, and indeed
on both sides of the long struggle we observe merely
a temporising and spasmodic policy, no constant
aim. There now appeared on the Eastern scene a
general whom Armenian writers claim as a fellow-
countrymen. Maurice was, according to Evagrius,
a native of Arabissus in Cappadocia ; but others say
he was born in the province of Ararat ; in either
case it is more than probable that he was in some
way connected with that district, which gave strength
and military leaders to the empire after the failure of
the Balkan or Illyrian stock. He may well have
belonged to one of the families who migrated into
Roman territory during a persecution. In 579,
Tiberius II. agreed to give up the imperial claims in
Persarmenia and Iberia, but refused to surrender
those who wished to join the empire. But Chosroes
especially insists on the extradition of those feudal
clan-leaders (yeveapyai) who had initiated the revolt ;
and dies during the ineffective conferences, after a
reign of nearly half a century. Tiberius'

§5. We are now on the threshold of the most offer to resign
stirring scene in a somewhat wearisome duel ; the f^^to
last fifty years of the wars between Persia and Rome Persarmenia.

366 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Tiberius
offer to resign
Roman
claims to
Persarmenia.

Mutinous
state of
Persian and
Roman
armies alike.

are crowded with incident. A Persian general de-
thrones his sovereign, who is restored by a Roman
emperor ; a Roman centurion murders his emperor,
and is attacked by the Persian, grateful to the prince
only, not to the commonwealth. Rome, lately so
triumphant in its favourite role of arbiter of justice
and the world's peace, is helpless before the Persian
vengeance; and, after an inglorious and desperate
interval of some sixteen years, suddenly awakens to
crush her rival in the campaigns of Heraclius, and
in the end to expose two exhausted powers to the
irresistible Arabs. To the new Shah, Hormisdas
(579), Tiberius renews his offer to surrender Pers-
armenia and Arzanene, but not the heads of the
rebellion. (It is to this epoch that we refer the curious
counterpoise of Tiberius to the seditious and untrust-
worthy legions of Rome ; he purchases barbarian
slaves (ayopavas a-wjULara eOvucwv), and thus began or
revived that policy of slave-armies so eagerly imitated
by the Moslem in the cases of Turkman, Janissaries,
and Memlukes.) The last year of Tiberius was signa-
lised by a great Roman victory at Constantia ; but
John Mystakon, a Thracian, under the new emperor
Maurice, 582, suffered a defeat, and yielded his place
in 584 to the emperor's brother-in-law, Philippicus ;
for it might well seem hazardous to entrust an im-
portant post to any but a member of the imperial
family. At the great battle of Solacon, it is said that
half the Persian army perished, and this success was
followed up by the ravage of Arzanene. But Philip-
picus, like Heraclius later, was of a highly strung and
neurotic temperament ; seized by panic he fled, and,
filled with shame, remained in retirement during the
rest of his command. The active duties were handed
over to Heraclius, father of the future emperor ; and
the armies of Rome obeyed in addition two Arabs and
a Hun (vTToarr parity 6s). The mutinous and malcon-
tent spirit of these Roman troops was well displayed
in 588, when Priscus was sent out as general-in-chief ;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 367

they broke into open revolt, forced him to fly for Mutinous
his life. and. refusing to be propitiated by the offer state °f

.._.,.:.., i • j o 4.-U • Persian and

of Philippicus return, proclaimed Germanus their Roman
leader. The Senate condemns Germanus to death ; armies alike.
but Maurice, naturally clement, and at this time
helpless, pardons him. Finally, on the pleading of
Gregory, bishop of Antioch, the troops take back their
old commander, Philippicus, and almost at once
secure an important victory in a pitched battle near
Sisarban, adjoining Nisibis (590). We read with
some surprise of this success of soldiers thoroughly
mutinous and demoralised ; but the armies of Persia
were in a worse, at least a similar, plight. Bahram,
the new pretender, came of Arsacid stock, and of
the family of the Miramians (rijs TOV Mippd/mou
oiKapyj,d<s) ; that is, he belonged to a branch of the
old regnant house which enjoyed the feudal appan-
age of Rey in Hyrcania down to the middle of the
seventh century. During this time Persarmenia
had become Roman in its sympathies ; Maurice had
also appointed a crrpar^yog for Colchis, who, taking
measures with the patriarch (KoivoXoyfaas ru> eKeicre
lepapyovvri), had gained a victory over the Persians
near Ganzac, the Albanian capital. But a settled
policy was out of the question. Opinion began to
veer round to Persia : Sembat raises a Persian party,
murders John, 'ApjueifW fiye^M, is reduced by Domen-
tziolus, condemned to the beasts in the Byzantine
arena, and finally reprieved by the clemency of
Maurice. It is curious to speculate on the long
train of results from this act of pardon. Sembat the
Bagratid returns a free man to become a resolute
"medizer," the favourite of Chosroes II., the Persian
governor of Armenia. From him issued the well-nigh
interminable line of Armenian and Georgian kings, who
ceased only with the opening of the nineteenth century.

§ 6. In 590 Chosroes displaces his father, and is vethrone-
himself dethroned by Bahram. He flies to the secure ment of
and honourable protection of Rome, The Armenian Cho8roes-

368 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Chosroes de-
throned and
restored by
Rome in
concert with
Armenian
nobles.

nobles, with that warm and chivalrous interest in a
legitimate line which is so prominent in Byzantine
history, supported the cause of Chosroes. Among
their number are conspicuous Mouschegh, prince of
Daron or Taron,1 a Mamigonian, Sembat the par-
doned rebel of the Bagratid stock, and Khoutha,
prince of Sassoun, a canton near Daron belonging
to the Mamigonians, and giving its name to-day to a
notable friend of our English royalty. With Mous-
chegh emerges a family well known in Roman his-
tory— one Alexius Mouschegh (Mwo-^Xe) is a trusted
Armenian captain under Constantine VI. (c. 790) ;
and another, victor in Sicily, will be Caesar and
emperor's son-in-law for a brief space under
Theophilus. Comentiolus has a certain success at
Martyropolis, where the garrison are compelled to
surrender by the bishop Domitian, another deter-
mined Eastern prelate, who mingles in political affairs ;
Sittas, a rebel, is given up to condign punishment,
and burnt alive in the barbarous fashion of those
days (we may see such a penalty inflicted under
both Phocas and Heraclius). But Chosroes did not
like Comentiolus. By the king's influence he was
recalled, or rather put in a subordinate place under
a general of undoubted Armenian descent, Narses,
an Arsacid and a Camsar (541), who six years earlier
was governor of Constantia. After a brilliant victory
over the pretender Bahram in Aderbaijan, near the
modern Tabriz, Chosroes is re-established as king.
He cedes Dara, Anastasius' well-placed citadel, and
a large strip of Armenia, stretching along Lesser
Armenia; it has been long since the Romans had
a frontier on the East so safe or so honourable.
Armenians are in favour for their loyal support ; the
sons of Sembat, Ashot and Varazdirot, receive the
rank due to the children of the Great King; their
father, a vassal of Persia on specially advantageous

1 Tchamtchian believes that this captain may be identified with John
Mystakon, an early general under Maurice, but there seems little reason.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (540-620) 369

terms, is made Marzban of Armenia and Hyrcania, chosroes de-
lying south-west of the Caspian. Mouschegh, or throned and
« Musel/' the Mamigonian, alone is envious and ^omein
disappointed ; like some feudal noble of Western concert with
Europe, he retires sullenly to his own estates. Ten
years of peace and silent recovery (591—601) were
a welcome relief to the peoples of the near East, Welcome

hurried along against their will in the aimless quarrels Peac? broken

_. - . . ~ f i by the murder

of the two great powers. Only the Saracen free-lances Of Maurice.

seem to have distressed Chosroes by their raids ;
and on his remonstrance (60 1), Maurice sent George,
" prefect of the East," and comptroller of the revenue
((f)opo\oyla$ eTTia-Tacria, Thph. Simoc.), to propitiate
his offended ally. It was very typical of the dis-
integrating and individualist spirit then abroad, that
the envoy boasted, openly and with impunity, that
to his tact alone was due the success of a delicate
business which the emperor could not have carried
through. Meantime, as we know, " urgentibus imperil
fatis," disaffection had penetrated the Western armies
of Rome ; the Avar campaigns were a failure ; the
toiling emperor could do nothing right in the eyes
of his subjects. For a moment the destiny of the
commonwealth hangs in the balance ; but the evil
genius prevails, and Phocas is elected by the troops.
He was joyfully accepted by the capital and its fac-
tions (602), to their eternal shame and remorse.

§ 7. At this the unnatural and incredible peace was Chosroes' war

roughly broken. In 604 policy and the manes of ofvengemce
i_-j jf-jj /~M • j a i againstRome.

his murdered friend drove Chosroes into a declara-
tion of war, and the last and most dismal scene
opens in the long fight. For eighteen years the
Romans suffer indescribable hurt and ignominy
(604-622); in six years their majesty is amply vin-
dicated, and the exhausted combatants succumb to
an unexpected foe. At this dramatic crisis in our
history, we can readily forgive the turgid metaphors
of the historian ; the Persian king sounds the trum-
pet which announces the doom of a world, and over-
VOL. II. 2 A

370 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Chosroes' war throws the well-being of Roman and Persian alike
(KOa'V°<pQ0PO1' o-d\7riyya . . . \vrripiov evTrpaylag). The
now pacified frontier had been denuded of troops,
and all available forces had been sent over for the
pressing needs of the Avar campaign. These were
now hastily collected and despatched eastwards, under
a eunuch, Leontius, soon to be supplanted by the
new emperor's own brother (or nephew), Domeni
tziolus, the Curopalat; for Phocas, like Maurice, seems
to trust only a near relative in high command. A
conspiracy of perhaps honourable silence among the
historians disguises the details of this war ; Theophy-
lact is scanty, and the Oriental writers alone give us
some tidings of a crisis, which forms such a signal

Mutinous refutation of elective monarchy. The Armenian
princes, living in a spirited feudal society, careless
like the later Teutons of any tie but personal loyalty,
were not backward in offering themselves for the
war of righteous vengeance. When Sembat dies in
60 1, Chosroes appoints a nominee recommended by
the nobles — David, the Saharhounian. Ashot, his
son, accompanied the king on an expedition into
Roman Armenia ; and being made lieutenant of
Persian forces in that district, begins to ravage a
country just reviving under the blessings of peace.
Mouschegh (Moxn/Xe), alone in his private appanage
of Taron, remained, like Achilles in his tent, deaf to
the call to arms ; and in the truceless enmity of the
two forces believed he had found the best guarantee
for his own autonomy. Mihram sent against him
a nephew of the Great King himself ; is absurdly
deceived by Vahan the Wolf, heir to the princi-
pality, and meets with woeful discomfiture ; his army
is divided and lured to its destruction piecemeal, and
the independence of Taron seems secured. Vahan,
succeeding to the chieftaincy in 605, still defies the
might of Persia, and set an example which the un-
wieldy and dissolving empire of Rome could not
imitate. Chosroes, indignant at the failure of his

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-670) 371

expedition and his nephew's death, sends his uncle, Mutinous
Vakhtang, against the rebel. But David the Marz-
ban eludes the order to send reinforcements, and
Vahan is completely successful. He dies in glory
and independence at his capital Moush ; and his son
Sembat, having killed the second kinsman of the
Great King, is for the present left alone in his pre-
carious freedom. Such was the feudal atmosphere
of Armenia ; such were the centrifugal tendencies
which rendered sovereign authority everywhere help-
less at the beginning of the seventh century.

Ill

THE DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS AND THE EASTERN
VASSALS

(a) To THE DEATH OF CONSTANS III. (620-668)

§ 1. During his distant campaign in Persia, Hera- Seraclius
clius had no reason to complain of the services ren- * to

dered by Armenia in other parts of the empire. His religious con-
unexpected vigour and success had reunited those fwrnity in
scattered limbs and interests which had been falling
apart in the years that followed Justinian's death.
When the soldiers, despising a sexless rebel, saved
him the trouble of punishing Eleutherius' revolt, the
exarchate was given to Isaac, an Armenian (probably
of the Camsar clan), 625 (?), whose epitaph, written by
his wife Susannah, can still be read in St. Vitalis at
Ravenna. He belonged to that princely caste who
offered themselves to the emperors almost on equal
terms — to that feudal and warlike nobility which still
surrounded the Sassanid throne and tempered its
despotism, only to vanish utterly in the democratic
equality of Islam and the unchecked autocracy, its
necessary consequence.

'AjO/xewo? ?y yap OVTO$ e/c \ajunrpov yevov?
6 T?? aTrd<Tt]s 'AjO/uei/ta? Kooyxo?
TWV /3aari\ecov 6

372 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Heracliuf? (These lines show clearly the proud and in-

JJJJ** dependent spirit in which he served Rome,
religious con- governing the curious patchwork which com-

formityin pOSed the imperial districts in Italy for eighteen
Armenia. . ,. .. . . .. ...

years.) The problem of Heraclms in dealing with

Armenians in their own country was one of religion,
as will be seen in the sequel. David, lieutenant-
general in Persarmenia since 60 1, and Prince of the
Saharhounians, escaped to the Romans in 625,
finding it difficult to conceal his sympathies in the
crusade, or convince the king of his good faith.
Varazdirot the Bagratid, son of Sembat, is his
successor as Marzban; but exposed to the plots of
an envious governor of Aderbaijan, Roustem, he
follows the precedent set and takes refuge in the
emperor's capital, after nearly seven years' command
in Armenia (631). On the peace (628) Heraclius
gave Roman Armenia to Mejej the Gnounian
(Me£e£to?), a great-grandson of that Mejej who had
long controlled Persarmenia under Cabades and
Chosroes Nushirvan. Heraclius now tried to secure
religious unity and persuade Armenia to accept the
council of Chalcedon. The patriarch Esdras and
Mejej consent, but are indignantly repudiated by
the rest of the prelates ; and the rupture of the
churches has lasted to the present day. Mean-
time the independence of Sembat the Mamigonian,
Prince of Taron, was secured by the weakness of
Persia and his own craft. Surena, demanding the
surrender of his brother Vakhtang's wife and
children, is defeated ; and Vahan or Baanes deceives
and cuts to pieces some Persian troops under
Dehram in a fashion strangely recalling the earlier
successes of this house. Taron was now safe from
interference, and this immunity from foreign control
was shared with the adjacent districts of the
Balounians, of Haschtiang, and of Ard-Shont.

§ 2. The flight of Varazdirot to Byzantium drove
Armenia into alliance with the emperor. Rustem,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-670) 373

who had attempted to oust the late governor, was Ambiguous

hindered by troubles at home and could not profit portion of
.... . . ... Armenia

by his disappearance. Anarchy prevailed every- Between the

where. The Patriarch Esdras, taking the lead like two powers.
Moses, Domitian, Cyrus, Sergius (statesmen-prelates
of the age), summoned a conference of peers, and
with their consent despatched envoys to Heraclius
(c. 632). The emperor, hoping for better fortune in
political than in his recent religious intervention,
sent out David, the ex-governor, with the high title
Curopalat: this is the earliest instance of its use for
an Armenian governor, and it will meet us at every
turn in Armenian history together with the name
jmdyta-Tpo?. But the attempt to rule independent
nobles by a vassal prince of their own rank could
not succeed ; feudal pride was too strong. The
nobles league and chase David from his post
(c. 634), and civil war ensues till 636. Then
Theodore, Prince of the Reschdounians (like Taron,
near Lake Van), acquires sufficient force to exercise
the precarious office of Marzban without authorisation
from either monarch ; quite in the fashion of some
mediaeval count, doubtful vassal of a German
emperor and a French king. Meantime the Arab Advent of the
onslaught on the prostrate rivals had begun, and Arabs-
in the Roman service and in their own country
Armenians are conspicuous. It is said that Vardan
commanded a Roman army at the siege of Damascus
(634), where the Greek writers give Theodore, the
emperor's brother ; while Vardan's son is on duty
at Emesa. If it is true (and the two accounts
are quite compatible), he will be a Mamigonian
prince. In the same year of disaster (634)
Heraclius sent a Vahan (or Baanes), also a Mami-
gonian, in joint command with Trithurius. (Of this
Vahan Arab writers know nothing, but use con-
sistently the name Vardan both for this colleague
and for " Theodorus "). It is not difficult to see why
he supplants the emperor's brother in the eyes of the

374 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Patriotic
resistance
under the
Vahans.

Nationalism
ruined by
feudal
paralysis :
Sack ofDovin
(640).

Arabians ; for he actually displaced him in a mutiny
of the troops and was saluted emperor, curiously
foreshadowing a very similar sedition of the Persians
under Theophobus exactly 200 years later (Trpo-
yeipi(ovTCU /3a<ri\ea TOV B. Kaa 'H^ocwcAe/oy aTreK^pv^av,
Thpl.). But the revolt of "Emperor" Bardanes
comes to the same untimely end as that of his
Armenian kinsman under Nicephorus I. (804) :
he retires to Mount Sinai and becomes a monk.1
Another Armenian Vahan is killed at Tarmouk
(636), where some read in error " Manuel": this
officer, a Mamigonian Romaniser and a eunuch
(according to Elmacin), was sent by Heraclius as
governor of Alexandria and AvyovcrrdXios. But
Armenian valour was sadly needed at home. Arab
raids became frequent ; Abderrahman with 18,000
ravages Taron, raises tribute, and carries off women
and children as slaves or hostages. Prince Vahan
(a Camsar and Arsacid on the mother's side), son of
Sembat of Taron, raises half this number to defend
their country ; he aroused a Mouschegh into arms,
and unhappily Sahour, Prince of the Andsevatsians,
from the southernmost part of Vasparacan and the
heart of Kurdistan mountains. This traitor ruined
the patriotic enterprise and passed over to the foe,
the loyal Armenians suffering a terrible rout and
losing Mouschegh (MovcrrjXe) and Diran, Vahan's
brother, who enjoyed the rich satisfaction of slaying
the renegade before his own death.

§ 3. Theodore, Prince of the Reschdounians, tried
without success to rally the nationalist cause ; feudal
jealousies prevented any cohesion in the party.

1 If we may trust an anonymous Syriac chronicler at the beginning of
the fourteenth century, this was not the only instance of Separatism in
the East, where private ambition defended in name the cause of the
empire which had already been surrendered by the emperor : a certain
Joseph makes himself master of Byblos, maintaining a petty State against
Persian and Arab alike under the unauthenticated title of defender of the
empire on the Phoenician coast ; Job succeeds and extends his dominion to
Caesar ea Philippi.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-670) 375

The country lay open to the marauders, for the Nationalism
Arabs had as yet no idea whatever of empire. So rui^ed by
pitiable was the condition of the land that Patriarch paralysis:
Esdras dies of grief (639) after a primacy of ten SackofDovin

years and eight months ; and at this signal the
Arabs close in round his see-city, the capital
Dovin, taking it by assault early in 640 (Epiphany,
according to Asolik). It was burnt and laid waste,
and 35,000 captives may attest past prosperity and
present misfortune. Habib, ironically termed the Steady north-

« friend of Rome" (he was no doubt a constant but ™rd advance

x of the Arabs

unwelcome visitor), was the author of this crushing (640 sqq.).

blow to Armenian freedom. Believing resistance to
be fruitless, the " Batrik " (TrarpiKios) of " Bas-
fouradjan " acknowledges the caliph ; or rather
surrenders through Habib to Moawiah, governor
of Syria for Othman. In this anonymous official
with a Roman title some have recognised Theodore,
who had so lately tried to marshal his national army.
Habib passed northward through Sisakon beyond the
Araxes, seized Wa'is, a strong fortress, and advancing
into Iberia, seized Tiflis. All the princes of North
Armenia and Iberia, and the chieftains of the
Caucasus, pay tribute. Salman, his lieutenant,
captured Bardaah, the capital of Otene (in Albanian
hands since the fall of the Arsacid monarchy in
Armenia), and Schamkor, a citadel and district in the
north (which comprised a separate lordship until the
fourteenth century). The Arabs' success was con-
tinued into the fastnesses of Albania ; Cabalaca (or
Cabala), the capital, felt into their hands; and the
petty Albanian chiefs in Schaki and up to the Caspian
Sea were reduced to vassals. (But a terrible Nemesis
awaited them (651), which we may here anticipate.
The Khan of the Khazars proved an unconscious
avenger of Rome and of Armenia ; the Arab com-
mander and his troops were confronted and exter-
minated, few escaping with the story.) Such was
then the state of the country in the middle of the

376 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Steady north- seventh century when Constans, grandson of
T^^ohT Heraclius> was Just issuing from tutelage into a
(640 sqq.). wayward and headstrong manhood. Both powers
claimed the suzerainty of Armenia (for in neither
case did it amount by a direct administration) ; the
Arabs, though continually ravaging, never made any
permanent conquest ; and the strange slave-dynasties
of Turkmans, alien military oligarchies, Taherids,
Sofarids, Bowids, Samanids, had no better success.
It was reserved for the pacific avarice of the
Byzantines and for the ruthless courage of the
Seljukian Turks to overpower this sturdy outpost
of eastern Christianity — or rather to drive its last
representatives, like the Gothic remnant in Saracen
Spain, into the fortresses of Cilicia and Georgia.
After the § 4. But meantime affairs in Armenia had not

stood sti11- Once more Theodore tries to con-

///
Nationalists federate the nationalists. The Roman Senate had,

aim at m the name of the youthful Constans (642), sent the

old Curopalat, Varazdirot, to resume whatever power
he could over the turbulent local chiefs, who were
quite out of sympathy with the uniform and centralised
control of Rome. On his death Sembat, his son,
succeeded to a vain dignity. Sembat (in a well-
marked triple division of authority and department)
was at the head of the civil administration ; Theodore
commanded the troops ; and the new Patriarch
Narses, or Nerses, showed all the vigour and capacity
of an ecclesiastical statesman. These three, acting
in a rare and happy agreement, endeavoured to re-
store order to the Church and State. But on a fresh
inroad (646) through Peznounia (north-west of Lake
Van) to the remote province of Ararat or Uriartu,
Theodore and Sembat are forced to pay tribute once
more. This news of his defaulting vassals reached
the inflammable emperor, who seemed more anxious
to punish this defection than prevent it by timely
reinforcement. Constans III. arrived at Dovin,
now recovering from its desolation, and was wel-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (620-670) 377

corned by the conciliating patriarch, Narses (c. 646). After the
Valuable time and patience were exhausted in pro- ™stt8°f
fitless theology. Constans, like his grandfather Nationalists
nearly twenty years before, attempts to force the aim at
Council of Chalcedon on the belief of Armenia. a
To secure a barren religious uniformity, he gave up
a valuable occasion for establishing Roman suzerainty
over a grateful people. On his retirement (647) the
old feuds break out again, and the Symbol is re-
pudiated. He now from a distance orders the three
heads of the civil, military, and ecclesiastical society
to convoke a council at Dovin and to urge the
acceptance of the distasteful creed. Narses, finding
himself in an untenable position between prince and
people, and unable to satisfy either party, abdicates.
In 649 Theodore secures John the Doctor for his
successor, and the two convene an assembly at
Mandzikert, in Central Armenia (651). But the
fortunes of Armenia have taken an unexpected turn for
the better. News of the defeat and overthrow of
Habib's lieutenant may very likely have reached the
conclave ; the emperor was far off, and Roman
troops were scanty. The princes believed them-
selves able to dispense with the support of Rome,
its churches, its orthodoxy, and its imposts. They
anathematise the creed of Chalcedon and all its
adherents. Political and religious separatism had
triumphed ; and it may be that the lords were
always more favourable to the loose suzerainty
of the Arabian caliph.

§ 5. In this crisis Constans III. sent the gallant Waning

veteran, Mejej the Gnounian, commanding in Western °fR°man
. J ... , t . influence;

Armenia, to conciliate his countrymen ; but speedily Armenia

replaced him by a certain Pasagnathes, " Patrician of tributary to
the Armenians " (Thpl.), who is by no means so loyal caliph'
to the Roman interest. Imitating the feudal princes
around him and the example of Joseph and Job
in Ccele-Syria, of Eleutherius in Italy, he attempts
to seize autonomy, and gives hostages to Moawiah.

378 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Waning
of Roman
influence ;
Armenia
tributary to
caliph.

Constans was roused to indignation ; unstable and
precipitate, he advances to Cappadocian Caesarea to
punish his viceroy or his vassal, is seized with
despair of reducing Armenia (aTreXTr/cra? r^? 'A^o-
yuewa?), and beats a hasty retreat to the city of Con-
stantine. Moawiah now determines to reduce
Armenia, where he counts on the support of Pas-
agnathes. Abulpharagius speaks of a great expe-
dition, of a double siege of the Caesarea before
mentioned, of an honourable tribute and capitulation ;
and of the amazement and regret of the Arabs at the
rich splendour of the city they had held to ransom.
But the onslaught of Moawiah had produced a
reaction in Greater Armenia ; Pasagnathes had made
little progress in detaching the nation from the
Roman alliance. In 653 another effort was made,
this time with better success. Habib, "friend of
Rome," was sent thither and defeated a Roman
general, Maurianus, who was present with reinforce-
ments for the loyalists. He chased him to Caucasus ;
ravaged the country, burned the towns, and came
home laden with booty and captives. The Armenian
writers, John Catholicos and Asolik, believed that
over 7000 hostages were carried off from the richer
families as a pledge of their inaction. Theodore
the Reschdounian, lieutenant-general and patriot, at
last abandons the Roman cause. With his troops he
passes over to Damascus, dying there the next year
(654) ; his body is brought back and buried in his
father's sepulchre in Vasparacan. The civil governor
Sembat, Curopalat, dies about the same time ; and of
the two only Narses is left. He comes out of his
seclusion, and concerts measures with the grandees
of Armenia, to secure order and protect the country
from a foe whose method of conquest was a mere
raid. Hamazasp, son of David the Mamigonian, is
now raised to the supreme civil dignity ; and Yard or
Bardas, son of the late commander-in-chief, as the
new general, divides with him the government.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 379

Armenian authorities style these leaders " Patrician " ; Waning

and with this Roman title they continued tributary °fKoman

influence;
to the Moslem. Armenia

tributary to
caliph.

UNDER THE HERACLIADS AND ISAURIANS

(/3) FROM CONSTANTINE IV. TO THE DEATH OF

LEO III. (670-740)

§ 1. It seems abundantly clear that the Armenian Revolt of
soldiers in the immediate service of the empire were ^^
dissatisfied with the treatment of their country by East and
the Heracliads. After the great opportunity in 628,
the Roman policy had been vexatious and inter- (668).
mittent. It had neither protected Armenia as a
friendly ally, nor governed her as a subject vassal —
neither defended nor administered. The imperial
visits had been unwelcome ; for they had turned on
points of religious difference, not on the urgent need
of reinforcements against the unbeliever. While the
Council of Chalcedon was pressed on the people
with angry zeal, the country was left exposed to a
ruthless power which recognised neither Chalcedon
nor any other. In 667 Constantine IV., as yet
beardless, was regent for his father absent in Sicily.
The o-Tparrjyos 'ApmevictKoov, Sapor the Persian-born
(2a/3cbpios Hepa-oyevrjs), revolts, an Amadounian prince ;
allied with Moawiah's troops he agrees with the
caliph to pay tribute to him if he wins the empire.
Sergius, " magister militum " (crrpaTr]\arri<s)y was sent
to Damascus to draw up the contract. But Rome
was saved from the disgrace of becoming vassal to
the caliph, under an Armenian, by a eunuch of the
court. Andreas had been bold enough to refuse
leave to the empress to accompany Constans
westwards ; just as the Patriarch Sergius had pre-
vented a similar flight of the Emperor Heraclius
himself. Before the caliph, at Damascus, the two

380 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Revolt of
Armenian
princes in
East and
West; Sapor
and Mejej
(668).

Recovery of
Armenia
under suze-
rainty to
caliph.

emissaries explain their terms — his favour is to be
given to the highest bidder. Sergius, full of the
true Byzantine hatred for a palace -chamberlain,
insults Andreas ; and the latter hurries off to arrange
for a warm reception of the general from the Clisur-
rarch of the Taurus (in the neighbourhood of Ara-
bissus). Sergius, elated at his triumph, returns from
his mission to be rudely seized in the moment of
success. Andreas mutilates and hangs the rebel,
not for the personal abuse but for his treason to
the empire. Sapor dies of a fractured skull in an
accident with a restive horse, while Nicephorus,
patrician, is sent against him to Adrinople (which
we must suppose to be some unknown spot within
the limits of the Armeniac theme). The sedition of
the Hepvoyevw had collapsed ; but within a year an
obscure cabal at Syracuse had procured the assassina-
tion of Constans at the bath, and the elevation of
the handsome Armenian, Mejej, to taste for a brief
season the cares rather than the delights of sover-
eignty. He is MiJ^fo? in Theophanes, Mizius to
the barbarous translator in the Miscella, Mecetius
to Paul the Deacon, Mezzetius to Anastasius. Michael,
the Syrian patriarch, styles him a patrician ; he was
certainly a Gnounian prince ; in no other family do
we find this name. We may well ask whether he
was not the son or grandson (evTrpeTrys K. wpaiorctTOs)
of the aged Mejej, partner of Heraclius and governor
of Roman Armenia ? The entanglement of Justinian
(patrician) and his son Germanus might persuade us to
accept another hypothesis ; — was this another attempt
to transfer the throne to the survivors of a dispos-
sessed dynasty, who had treated Armenia with greater
fairness than the Heracliads ? We may note that Ger-
manus is castrated, and becomes later — like Ignatius,
son of Michael I. (813) — patriarch of the capital city.
§ 2. During the contest of AH and Moawiah for
the caliphate, Armenia recovered her lost inde-
pendence and placed herself under the protection of

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 381

Rome. We find again the title " Curopalat " ; but Recovery of

when Moawiah became recognised head of Islam. Ar™enia

. ' under suze-

the Armenian again veered round against Rome, rainty to

remembering the scanty aid rendered by the empire caliph.
and the constant religious friction. Yard or Bardas,
the Reschdounian, was prominent in the anti-Roman
party. Hamazasp died after a principate of four
years in 658; and the caliph "invests" his brother
and successor, Gregory, on the demand of the
grandees and the patriarch. It cannot be denied
that under the infidel suzerain the country enjoyed
a new life of peace and prosperity. The lords were
harmonious ; the prince tactful, pious, and en-
lightened ; the tribute punctual ; and the contingents
of Armenia regularly figured in the muster-roll
against the Roman Empire. In 683 (John Catholicos
and Asolik are our authorities) this tranquil develop-
ment was suddenly arrested. The Khazars, un-
conscious saviours of the Armenian State thirty years
before, crossed the Caucasus on a pillaging enter-
prise, slay Gregory, and expose the land to two
years' anarchy. In the last year of Constantine IV.,
a prince more fortunate in West than East, Ashot
the Bagratid, rallying the forces against the northern
raider, is recognised as " patrician." He gives (accord-
ing to a sacred custom) the control of the troops to
a brother, Sembat, and secures his position by dutiful
tribute, the only indispensable incident in the con-
dition of a Moslem vassal. The young Justinian II.
and the caliph strike a peace for ten years in 686,
which gives signal proof of progress and quiet re- Secret com-
covery in the empire during the reign of the fourth fa^J^'
Constantine. The caliph gave 3000 pieces of gold caliph:

a day, one horse, and one slave, while the two removal of the

. , ,, v v „ Mardaites.

powers shared equally (Kara TO LVOV) the revenues

of Cyprus, Armenia, and Iberia. But behind this
apparent humiliation of the tributary caliphate lay
a secret understanding of the utmost importance,
which explains the sudden advantage of Rome in

382 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Secret com- the negotiations. For some time past the Mardaites
pact oj Just. in the Ccele-Syria had been a thorn in the side of
caliph - the Damascene court. Under a nominal allegiance

removal of the to Rome, they had kept their autonomy and played
Mardaites. off Qne power against its rival. Justinian II. now
agreed to the removal of this inexpensive bulwark.
A local chronicle of later date tells of the behaviour
of Leontius, general of the East, and afterwards
emperor (695-698), towards these gallant moun-
taineers : advancing to Cabbelias, their stronghold,
with protestations of amity, he lured and killed John
their chief. He appointed as successor the nephew
of the dead prince, administered the oath of allegi-
ance to the empire, and somehow contrived to
appease their resentment. He then achieved the
sole object of this sudden imperial interest in the
Mardaites: he removes 12,000 of their best soldiers
to Lesser Armenia, to Thrace, and to Pamphylia
(where, like the Gotho-Greeks in an earlier age, they
formed a military settlement or colony detached
from the native populace, under their own com-
mander at Attalia, the KUTCTT avu> (Constant. Imp. ad.
imp., § 50 ; this would seem to be the work of
Tiberius III., who sprang from those parts, and it
is not beyond possibility that Leo the " Isaurian " was
the son of one of these Apelatic brigands). Without
distracting attention to the origin and fortunes of this
remarkable community, we may note that Roman
opinion looked on these unauthorised defenders as
a " brazen wall " (xa\Keov re^o?) ; and regarded
Justinian's act as the capital error of his reign,
whereby he permanently exposed the eastern frontier
and mutilated the empire (rijv 'PtafjLa'uctjv Swaa-Telav
aKpcoTtjpida-as). The Arabs, now relieved from fear,
sought again and fortified anew the strongholds
from Mopsuestia to the north of Edessa and Nisibis,
and the parts round Martyropolis (Miafarekin). — The
same Leontius was sent on as general Kara rtjv
JAp/ui€vlai>, with a force of 40,000 to overawe the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 383

inhabitants and remind them of the mighty claims Secret com-
of Rome. He advanced right up to Albania to
Mongam, the rich alluvial pastures and marshes at cdliph:
the mouth of the Cyrus, ravages twenty-five pro- removal of the
vinces or cantons, carries captive eight hundred
families to be sold as slaves, and massacres the
Saracens there.

§ 3. Armenia had then, by the end of Justinian's Troubled state
first reign, passed through the following vicissitudes a
since the rise of Islam, the collapse of the Sassanids, of Just. II.
and the decay of Roman influence or continuous
policy in the East. Arab invasions begin as early
as 637 ; they capture and lose Dovin, 639 ; reduce a
large part as Saracen province by 650, but soon,
after the defeat by the Khazars, are driven out, 652-
656 ; recover their footing by 657, and during the
reign of the Roman emperor, Constantine IV., control
the land by tributary princes ; are challenged by
Justinian in a restless but impatient policy, 686-693 ;
and in 693 send governors to take the place of the
native rulers. For in 692 Justinian had lost the
great battle of Cilician Sebaste by the defection
of his Slavonic mercenaries (Xao? irepiova-ios, to the
number of 30,000, an unhappy imitation of Tiberius
II.'s bodyguard). The caliph shakes off the tribute,
and reasserts his sway over Armenia (693), since the
inroad of Leontius a prey to anarchy and invasion.
The Arabs had raided and carried off booty and
slain Ashot the patrician, after four years' rule. In
690, Justinian had himself visited the East, with an
army, divided into sections, for Armenia and for
Albania. His presence compels the submission of
the lords, tribute is paid and promised, and Roman
control seems to revive. The government is en-
trusted to Narses of Camsar descent, son of Vahan :
and he is honoured by the dignities of Patrician and
Curopalat. The troops and military matters, with the
title TrctTpLKios Trf<i 'Ap/u.evla$, are given (according to
the familiar division of labour) to Sembat the Bagratid,

384 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Arab inroads brother of the murdered Ashot. On the retire-
ment of Justinian> who could intimidate but not
defend, Abdallah, on behalf of the caliphs, marched
to Dovin and secures the persons of the rulers by
a trick, including the patriarch Isaac, — the chief
pastor exercising (as we have often seen) in this
feudal society very great political influence. Sembat
manages to escape, and after opening a secret and
hesitating intrigue with Leontius, general of the
Anatolics, flies to Albania with Ashot his cousin, and
Yard the son of Theodore, Prince of the Resch-
dounians. The Armenian cause is upheld only by a
Roman resident or commissioner (7rapd/3ov\os ovo/man
2a/3m>?), who, indignant at the flight of Sembat,
harasses and defeats the Arabs. His troops take
Dovin, burn the renegade governor's palace, and
march to Vartanakert, where the refugees were
besieged ; the siege is raised, the Arabs defeated
and drowned in the breaking of the deceptive ice,
which a frost of exceptional severity had formed on
the Araxes. Leontius, well known in the East, has
now become emperor (695), and he sends a name-
sake as Curopalat. Sembat moves the capital north-
wards to the fortress of Toukhars in Da'ik (or Ta'ik),
on the Lazic frontier, and for some time kept the
country inviolate from Arab incursions. To this
period (? 692 or earlier) must be referred an obscure
alliance between the Khazars and the empire, result-
ing in a joint inroad from the north into the caliph's
lands. Othman defeats the united force of 60,000
with 4000, if the figures are correct ; and the caliph's
nephew, Mohammed, at the head of 100,000, after a
preliminary failure, defeats the Khazars ; while his
son Maslemah attacks and completely routs 80,000
at the gates of Tzour (or defiles of Derbend), and
achieves a complete victory. It is hazardous to
assign this event to any precise year in the cali-
phate of Abdalmelik, but the inroad would seem to
show(i) the exposed and troublous state of Armenia

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 385

proper ; (2) the security or insolence with which Arab inroads

the Arabs penetrated across it to attack the nor- and removal
f of the capital.

them foe.

§ 4. Meantime in Byzantium, Leontius gives place Terrible
to Tiberius III. (608) : and once more an Armenian ^™™?tf

y / 1 , caliph (705)

pretender gives anxiety at court. Bardanes, son of against
Nicephorus, a patrician, is troubled with an early legend Romanising
of an eagle shielding him from the sun in infancy. party'
The same tale is narrated of Marcian and of Basil ;
but the court was justifiably suspicious of Armenian
immigrants of royal descent and imperial auguries,
and he is exiled (c. 700) to Cephallenia, to reappear
as first undoubted Armenian Caesar in 711. Armenia,
as was her wont, vacillated between the two powers ;
Vahan, " he of the seven devils," a Mamigonian
governor, was a faithful henchman to the caliphs,
and reduced forts in Lesser Armenia for the use of
Arabs. But on his retirement, the lords in secret
conclave (ot apyovres 'AytyucWa?) decide to extirpate
the Saracen intruder. Narses the Camsarid and
Sembat the Bagratid lead the new revolt, always
believing their late more tolerable than their pre-
sent masters. Roman influence revives during this
not discreditable reign of an obscure Cibyrrhaeot
(698—705) ; the northerly people of Vanand, by the
Araxes, join the confederacy ; and it is proposed to
welcome a Roman garrison for Greater Armenia, —
an expedient which would have been long ago
suggested but for the incurable feudalism which
could neither brook tutelage nor dispense with
foreign aid. At the same time, dread of the nearer
power forces the insurgents to open negotiations
with the caliph in case of failure ; and it is probable
that the captive patriarch Isaac, dying (703) at
Harran in Mesopotamia, was engaged on a concilia-
tory mission. But the day of vengeance was near :
Mohammed entering Armenia with a large force
massacres all Romans ; convenes through Cassim,
his lieutenant, all the grandees (/xeywrco/e?), and burns
VOL. II. 2 B

386

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. A

Terrible
vengeance of
caliph (705)
against
Romanising
party.

Armenian
exiles flock
into Roman
service.

Early adven-
tures of
Conon in the
East.

them alive ! Dovin is given to the flames ; noble
families are enslaved ; pillage and desolation last for
several years ; and the poor remainder of the Chris-
tian nobility take measures for deserting their country
and finding asylum on Roman ground. In 706, the
curopalat Sembat, with two Arzrounian princes, Gre-
gory and Gorioun, fly to Lazica, where Justinian II.
allotted towns for their occupancy : but finding it
difficult to live under official supervision, these feudal
princes return to the despairing business of brigand-
or guerilla-warfare. The silence which falls on
Armenian history in the opening of the eighth cen-
tury tells us emphatically of the decay if not of the
extinction of national life. A feudal peerage, rent
by jealous factions and supporting severally, like the
Japanese Daimios, a warlike retinue of vassals and
kinsmen, could not accept the control of either
despotic or democratic monarchy. While they
felt themselves free to join either party at pleasure,
the sovereigns of New Rome and of Damascus re-
garded them at each default in the light of traitors
and apostates. The sole administrative measure of
these suzerains was a punitive expedition, brutal
ferocity, a hasty nomination, and a hurried retreat.
No attempt was made to annex or incorporate ; and
though both powers are to be blamed for a policy of
slave-drivers, it may be confessed that the most
prosperous years in the troubled century were passed
under Arab allegiance. Yet the results of this most
recent and vindictive act (705-6) desolated Armenia
and sent her soldiers and captains wholesale into the
ranks of Rome. Even more conspicuously than
before, Armenian influence prevails in the im-
perial society and government. Alone the Greek
Church maintains its independence and its suspicious
attitude.

§ 5. The early experiences and success of Conon
(or Leo III.) sufficiently attest his Armenian con-
nections. He was sent by the restored Justinian II.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 387

to subdue a revolt of Abasgia, Alania, and Iberia, Early adven-

which the greed of governors had roused during the ^res °f

, *=> Conon in the

impunity granted by the weakness of the central East.

government (695-705). He was also (it was said
by the malignant) despatched by a jealous prince
upon an errand from which he would never return
alive. But Conon falsified this secret hope. Known
to us as an able leader and an implacable persecutor,
he displayed all the arts of a tactful diplomat. De-
prived of his military chest (it was said with Justinian's
connivance), he secured the cordial help of the Alans
against the mutineers. The Alans deceive them by
a profession of sympathy, surround their forces,
and at his orders exterminate them. Another
Roman detachment was defeated by the Saracens (?)
before Archaeopolis in Lazica. Conon is now cut
off by his relentless foes ; and only manages to slip
through by a perjured guile, by which Pharasmanes,
governor of the Iron Fortress in the Caucasus, con-
sents to capitulate and join the Romans, but is seized
and his citadel razed to the ground. Leo gained
Absilia, was received with honour, and sailed from
Trebizond for the capital, to find that Anastasius II.
was fixed on the throne (713). We make much of
these early stories of great men, but this series of
incidents throws perhaps little light upon the state
of feeling in the East. It is clear that exchange of
suzerains was easy, that Abasgia and Lazica were in the
main loyal to the Romans, but that the Saracens (?)
found no difficulty in penetrating to the very capital
of Colchis. Yet it is from this half-mythic exploit
that Leo III. won the command of the Anatolics, and
the reputation which made the caliphate recognise
in him the future emperor. — About this time the
authorities supply us with conflicting rumours on the
behaviour and policy of Rome towards the Armenians,
which make it difficult to discover the truth : at the
close of his reign Justinian (in Syrian accounts) is
said to drive out these natives from his dominion,

388 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. A

Two Armen- while the Arabs gave them a home (c. 709). This
To&XTl)'' (un^ess two accounts are given of a single event) was
of Armenian repeated under the Armenian Bardanes, now the Em-

settlements peror Philippicus, in 71 2 : "He chased them from his

and (2) origin f ., A ' ,

of Leo III. territory, and the Arabs gave them settlements in

Melitene." So Abulpharagius and Michael Syrus,
and even Theophanes, seem to agree, oiKfjo-ai tjvdyKaa-ev,
which might easily be applied to one who made them
shift their quarters. The natural and accepted ac-
count is of course exactly the reverse : Philippicus
established his fellow-countrymen, expelled from
their domiciles, in Melitene, and in Fourth Armenia.
History is, alas ! not so explicit as to the respective
power of Rome or the caliphate to allot land in
these districts ; and we are obliged to leave an obscure
transaction with this remark : — the settlers seemed
in the end to become rather the friends of the caliph
than partisans of the empire. So confused are the
homesteads and the population by the shifting of
entire countrysides in this era, that it is not surprising
if we cannot assign the birth and descent of Leo with
any accuracy. Did he belong to the Mardaite bor-
derers ? Was he born, like Artavasdus, his son-in-
law, at Marach, near Germanicea, on the confines of
Syria and Cilicia ? Technically, the name "Isaurian"
means little ; Leo III. was not a compatriot of
Zeno. But the name Syrian means still less. It
is incontestable that he represented Armenia in
character and creed, that his chief allies and rela-
tives came from that nation, and that he believed
himself closely united with it.
Unqualified | 6. Still we find Arab intervention in the north

^caliT t0 ste'rn and imPerious- In 7 1 o, Othman seized Camakh,
(from 710). or Ani, the ancient capital of Armenia, with its images
of the old Armenian gods and its sepulchres of the
kings of the Haik dynasty. About 720, the country
was once again aroused by the din of war, and
became the scene of a renewed struggle of Khazars
with the Moslem. Maslemah, the son of Caliph

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (670-740) 389

Abdalmelik, who failed in the great siege of Constan- Unqualified
tinople, now governor of Armenia, has to repress the s^n^°^ to
invaders : Armenia has no longer native and tribu- (fr0m 710).
tary rulers, but a prince direct from Damascus. In
722, he carries the war across the Caucasus into the
homes of the enemy. For the next ten years
Maslemah appears and disappears in an Armenian
command, according to the caprice of his brother,
Caliph Hischam. We find him in 728 laying siege to
Derbend, but suddenly retiring (SeiXavSpria-as) by one
of those inexplicable panics, which seem common
enough for Roman and infidel generals in the East
about this time. He is again displaced in 731, to
make room for Merwan, an Ommiad, and son of
Mohammed, who long governed a contrite or sup-
pressed Armenia. Under him " order reigned in "
Armenian "Warsaw"; the country was consolidated;
the Khazars repressed or conciliated ; the petty princes
along the Eastern Caucasus reduced to order. It was
the era of unquestioned Arabian supremacy.

DIVISION B

PREDOMINATING INFLUENCE WITHIN (740-1040)

ARMENIANS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE EMPIRE FROM
CONSTANTINE V. TO THEOPHILUS (c. 740-840)

Revolt of § 1. IT becomes difficult in the period before us

tnftmm- to keeP distinct the streams of political development
plantation of and of Armenian infiltration. Deprived of local life,
Armenia poured the best treasures of her warlike
or feudal temper into the empire, and contributed
largely to its internal history. The revolt of Arta-
vasdus must be once more treated under this head-
ing (742, 743). To the line of Baanes and Mizizius
and Bardanes-Philippicus is added a new pretender,
son-in-law of the great Iconoclast by Anna his
daughter, and father of Nicephorus. A civil war at
this juncture was little short of disastrous for the
fortunes of the commonwealth ; Constantine to the
end of his reign was hampered by the losses of this
needless family quarrel. But it was more than a
contested succession or a domestic sedition ; it was
a national movement. The troops concerned are
Armenians and Armeniacs — that is, troops supplied
by the princelings (like Hessians in the eighteenth
century) serving as allies under the imperial standard,
and troops stationed in the Armeniac theme, by
origin and sympathy equally Oriental. At Modrina,
on the Bithynian frontier of Phrygia, the patrician
Tiridates lost his life, an Armenian and cousin of
Artavasdus ; and his soldiers refuse to yield, de-
termined not to survive their compatriot or accept

800

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 391

quarter from aliens. These troops had long formed Revolt of
the flower of the Roman armies ; and their obstinate ^nftm
valour led to a serious loss (Constant. Imp. ad: imp : plantation of
i. 2). The Domestic sent to gather provisions for the
beleaguered capital bears the same Armenian name as
his master; and the chief minister and companion
of Artavasdus' flight (743) is the patrician Ba/cra^o?
(or with Zonaras Better, Ba/cra-yyto?) in which we
can easily read Vakhtang. Almost two centuries had
elapsed, when the revolt was at last subdued, since
Artaban's attempt on the life of Justinian in 548. —
Ten years later, when Abbassid caliphs have sup-
planted Ommiads, and Pepinids the effete line of
Clovis, when the Exarchate had been torn from
the empire, — the East awakens to life once more.
Chusan revolts against the Emir of Mesopotamia, at
the same time Governor of Armenia ; with the help
of Roman troops he takes Melitene and Theodosio-
polis ; Camakh (or Ani) as well, if we accept the
account of Abulpharagius. Constantine V. adopts
the transplanting policy of Justinian II. ; from these
towns he takes large numbers of heretics, and with
them replenishes the terrible gaps left in his
capital by the Great Pestilence. Scylitza (Cedrenus)
calls them " kinsmen of the emperor ; Armenian
and Syrian schismatics " (o-i/yyem? . . . 'Ap/uLev. K.
Zi^oou? olpcTutoi?), following Theophanes, the violent
hater of the Iconoclasts. Probably they were Pauli-
cians ; and we shall find them later arguing with
Alexius Comnenus at the close of the eleventh, and
still existing in the nineteenth century, as a suspected
but tolerated community in Thrace. Caliph Mansour
fights with varying success ; his forces are beaten
back with discredit from the siege of Camakh
(Ani), but he manages to rebuild Arsamosata (767)
on the Euphrates, and in 771 he captures Samosata
and Germanicea, the birthplace of the reigning
dynasty, "decanting" the population into Palestine

. — In 772 a Vardan is

392

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Armenian
monopoly of
military
command.

Vigorous
policy of
Harun; cow-
stant duel at
Byzantium
between
Armenian
generals and
Orthodox
reaction.

found in command of the Roman theme of the
Armeniacs ; and six years later (778) a great force
of 100,000 men is raised under Leo IV., in which all
the four generals of divisions are clearly of Armenian
descent ; Artavasdus of the Anatolics, Tatzates of the
Buccellarians, Caristerotzes of the Armem'acs, Gregory,
son of Mazalacius, of the Obsicians; the entire
army being placed under the control of the famous
old monk-hunting Michael Lachanodracon of the
Thracesians. Tadjat is a favourite name with the
Arzrounian and Gnounian princes ; and it is interest-
ing to notice that, thirty years after the rising of
Artavasdus, his compatriots monopolise all the chief
military posts, and as a consequence the entire govern-
ment of Asia Minor. Little was accomplished by
this vast and unwieldy host : but more Jacobite
Syrians were transferred to Thrace ; perhaps to act as
a counterpoise or solvent to the Hellenic orthodoxy,
against which the Armenian camarilla had declared
a truceless war.

§ 2. In 780 a new and romantic figure claims our
notice. Harun enters for the first time on the stage
as governor of Aderbaidjan, a post in our own day
allotted to a Persian heir-apparent. But the position
included the control of Armenia ; and by the side of
the inexperienced prince was a faithful Barmecide
as Secretary of State. With this year then begins
a more vigorous and vexatious policy towards the
lands of the empire ; and at home a long and
obscure series of conspiracies takes its start, aiming
at the dethronement of Constantine VI. and Irene.
Incessant intrigue and suspicion was the atmos-
phere in which moved the unfortunate half-brothers
of Leo IV. Decorated with the empty titles of
Caesar or Nobilissimus, they became for more than
thirty years a storm-centre and a rallying-point for
the malcontents. The last intimation of their exist-
ence is found in the reign of the first Michael, when
their dynasty had irretrievably passed away ; though

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 393

a few who recalled the services of the " Isaurian " Vigorous
house looked with regret at the blinded princes, the ^jj^f con
blameless instruments or pretexts of revolution tor stant duel at
so long a time. This year (780) sees the earliest fy^n^um
attempt to place Nicephorus on the throne ; and the Armenian
plot includes the father of a future emperor, Bardas, generals and
general of the Armeniacs. Now in the dim light
which fitfully illuminates a dark period we are left
to surmise, and may often be led astray by an ex-
cessive interest in the meagre detail. But it seems
impossible to avoid the following conclusions : that
since the time of Leo the whole imperial forces
in Asia had been in the hands of a small band
of devoted Armenian adherents, who thoroughly
sympathised, like Cromwell's Ironsides, with the
policy of image-breaking and monk-hunting ; that
the Orthodox reaction looked to Irene the Athenian,
strangely-mated consort of Leo IV. ; that the last
twenty years of the dynasty were not a mere house-
hold quarrel between a capable mother and a
wayward son, with designing uncles in the back-
ground : rather was it a serious contest between two
rival creeds, two rival methods of government.
Irene represents Orthodoxy, pacific principles, and
palace-control ; the leaders of the army represent
a bluff and jovial worldliness, anti-clerical and
undoctrinal, and an aggressive frontier policy. These
incidents are treated elsewhere, in our estimate of
the imperial position and its dangers. We must here
restrict our attention to their Armenian aspects;
yet it will not be easy to keep the threads apart, so
closely interwoven is the national, the religious, the
political issue. The Saracens' inroads, menacing all
Asia Minor, begin anew in 781, the annual tourna-
ment, or rather purposeless slave-raid, which excites
the impatience of the historian and the reader.
Chief command of the imperial troops is entrusted
to the eunuch John, significantly enough ; not for the
first time had the court found security in supplanting

394 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Vigorous
policy oj
Harun; con-
stant duel at
Byzantium
between
Armenian
generals and
Orthodox
reaction.

Treason of
Tatzates
owing to hate
of courtiers.

a too popular general by a pliant agent of the palace,
and some of the great Roman successes had been
won by the latter. Eleutherius the exarch (619) was
a eunuch, and perhaps owed his failure and death
to the circumstance, and in 782, another, Theodore,
was sent in command to Sicily. This is the first
occasion for many years that we read of such an
appointment, and no doubt it marked a deliberate
purpose in the regency of Irene. The civil service,
or rather the palace-clique, were to be pitted against
the strength of the Armenian general, the military
caste ; and from this moment dates the tedious duel
which fills all our later records to Alexius (1081).
Michael Lachanodracon (who held command in Asia
for forty years) and the Armenian Tatzates de-
feated the Arabs under the vigilant supervision of the
eunuch, who desired, with the court, that the result
of the battle should be neither too disastrous nor too
triumphant ; in the victory there must be a discreet
and moderate exultation, and no single personality
should stand out before the public gaze. Elmacin
tells us that certain Greek troops fled to Damsak,
lord of Malch (MaXAo?, in Thph. M.rj\ov ; in the
Miscella, Milium) ; this will be, as Batrik of Patricius,
an equivalent of Domesticus, already used for the
chief commander in the East. We cannot avoid
the conclusion that this new title implies that change
of policy which placed all large forces under direct
central control. In the next centuries the name
Domestic of the Schools will be the invariable appella-
tion of the generalissimo ; but the Schools are the
household troops, and their commander an emissary
or a satellite of the palace.

§ 3. The want of harmony between the two de-
partments may well have emboldened Harun ; he
advances to Chrysopolis, near Chalcedon, without let
or hindrance. Nicetas, a eunuch and a chief favourite
with Irene, defended the town (called by Elmacin
al-Koumas, the Count, by Ibn-al-athir, Koumas-al-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 395

kawamis, Count of counts, on the analogy of Emir Treason of

of emirs). Lachanodracon suffered a reverse, and Tat*ates

owing to hate
turned to fly on the plain of Darenig in Lydia ; of courtiers.

15,000 Romans perished. Nor was the panic at
Constantinople allayed by the next item of intelli-
gence— that Tatzates had passed over to the caliph,
finding the insolence of the eunuch Stauracius in-
sufferable. Long ago the pretorian prefect, despoiled
of direct military command, had taken his revenge
by controlling the stipends and the commissariat ;
now (true to the civilian policy) the accountant (\oyo-
Oerrjs, whether of post or of exchequer) could harry
the army corps by interference, formalities, and
delay. Nor need we betray surprise if an Armenian
Christian magarizes; it may well be that the crude
belief of a Paulician or an Athingan was in fuller
sympathy with Islam than with Christianity. In the
dearth of evidence, we need not refer Tatzates to
one or other of these heterodox sects : yet there is
reason to think that, among the military caste, such
views were more prevalent than the Greek Church
would have us believe. And it is well to remind
those who see in the Albigenses or Cathari the fore-
runners of Protestantism and the pure gospel, that
in the Western sects, as in the Oriental, there was
little distinctively Christian at all, either in dogma or
in practice. The treason of Tatzates bore immediate
fruit ; invited as if to an honourable conference, the
chief minister of Irene was seized by his advice, and
held to ransom by the unscrupulous Harun. Dis-
graceful terms were dictated, and the empire paid
65,000 pieces of gold for the liberty of some menials
of the court. Harun, contemptuous, gave the com- Violent

monwealth a breathing space, which was employed Armenian

r J and military
by Irene (785) to reverse the Iconoclast policy at a opposition to

formal council. The guard, whether from Puritan
conviction or loyalty to the Isaurian memory, vio-
lently interrupted the conclave and menaced the
Greek bishops with death. Irene treated the revolt

396 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Violent
Armenian
and military
opposition to
Images (785}.

First deposi-
tion of C. VI.
frustrated by
the Armenian
troops.

C. VI.

estranges his

Armenian

supporters.

with adroitness and clemency. A feint of a Saracen
inroad allows her to transfer these Armenians across
the Bosphorus, where they are at once disbanded ;
their wives and effects are sent after them, and they
are forbidden to set foot in the capital city again.
Meantime, Stauracius enrolled loyal Thracians in their
place as the bodyguard of the sovereigns. So turned
out the first attempt to roll away the Armenian
incubus, as this court-party and the Orthodox Church
without doubt believed. It is clear that the removal
of the anti-Hellenic element could not have been
complete ; for the Armeniac guards play a consider-
able part in the revolution of 790. In the interval,
Constantine VI. had emerged into manhood, and
resented the trifling and ceremonious part allotted to
the legitimate Augustus. He had suffered the great
disappointment of his life in losing his romantic
Western bride Rotrud ('JZpvOpcio), and being forced to
wed Maria, a beautiful and pious but humbly-born
Paphlagonian. He was embittered and dangerous ;
Irene removed him, by her act exciting the deep
displeasure of the Armeniacs. Alexius Mouschegh
(MwcnyAe), Spathaire and Drungaire of the night-watch,
being sent to appease them (with singular short-
sight), merely places himself at the head of a move-
ment of his countrymen with which he felt in
complete sympathy. The rest of the Thematic troops,
curiously massed as it would seem within sight and
reach of the capital, assemble and salute Con-
stantine VI. sole emperor, who at once confirms
Alexius in the captaincy of the Armeniacs. The
fierce delight of old Michael Lachanodracon may be
imagined, in the pleasing duty of administering an
oath to the troops never to receive Irene as ruler:
two years later he closed his restless career in battle
against the Bulgars, 792.

§ 4. A third intrigue of the discontented with
Caesar Nicephorus enables Stauracius to implicate
Alexis Mouschegh in the plot. Constantine blinds

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 397

his faithful servant on a false suspicion ; and the G. VI.

superstitious noted with satisfaction that exactly five esttran9^s his

., .. e A Armenian

years later, in the very month of August, and on the supporters.

same day of the week, he suffered the same penalty.
The pent-up fury of the Armeniac troops broke out
at this treatment of their general ; they imprisoned
Theodore Camulianus, sent to remonstrate with them,
and cut to pieces a detachment, no doubt of Thracians
(and amongst these we may note with some astonish-
ment the commander's name, Constantine Ardashir,
an Armenian). Terror prevailed at Constantinople ;
but the storm-cloud suddenly dissolved under the
influence of money, as the violent factions had been
appeased under Justinian. The year 797 is signalised
both by the second and final dethronement of Con- His removal;
stantine VI., and by two abortive attempts to elevate ^omff^V.
his uncle Nicephorus ; the fourth plot of this un-
happy puppet of a losing faction was followed by
his banishment to Athens, whither the eunuch Stau-
racius sent him, lured from the safe asylum of
S. Sophia. Here his partisans once more meditate
revolt ; but the citizens, devoted to Irene, and led
by her brother the patrician Constantine Seranta-
pechys, save the government further trouble by
inflicting blindness on all the brothers.

The presence of an insolent foe, in the heart Peril of the
of the empire and within sight of the capital, cannot caPital
have implied in those days the ignominy and panic,
the paralysis of trade and government, which it
would entail to-day. The reign of Irene was by no
means wanting in dignity ; but the strong Asiatic
contingents must have been seriously weakened, and
the frontier defence imperilled, when we read that
in 798 the stables and horses of Irene and Stauracius,
on the shores of the Bosphorus, were plundered
by the Arabs, and that Peter, Count of Obsicians, was and re-
cut to pieces resisting with his band. It was ™oval°f

i • j.i ^,1 r , • Irene by the

perhaps in the same year as Charles coronation as stauracian

Western emperor, that the strange veto was placed party-

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Peril of the
capital and
removal of
Irene by the
Stauracian
party.

Exceptional
post created
for Armenian
general in
Asia.

by Irene on the intercourse of the military caste with
this minister ; and we only mention it here as a
proof of the jealous separation of departments pre-
vailing at this time, or perhaps inaugurated by the
first female sovereign. Meantime, a plot was forming
(800) within the precincts of the palace and the
ministries, to deprive Irene as she had deprived her
son. The historian is prepared to see in Nice-
phorus (descendant of the Ghassanid king Djabalas),
a kinsman of the powerful eunuch, and to explain
the sudden elevation of a civilian comptroller of the
finances by the same unseen agency as raised
Michael IV. to the throne in 1034. Masoudi and
Abulpharagius agree in calling his father Istibrak,
which may well be a version of Stauracius ; and
his son and successor bore the same name. Yet
we must allow that the minister was by this time
dead, and that his crafty brother looked for other
supporters in his venture. On the disgrace or
demise of his rival, the eunuch Aetius divided between
himself and his brother Leo the chief military com-
mand near the capital ; he unites the colonelcy of
Obsicians and Anatolics, giving Leo the European
troops of Thrace and Macedonia. But the Stau-
racian party was not extinct. Seven eunuchs combine
with rare unanimity in the cause of Nicephorus :
Nicetas, already named, with three eunuch brothers
of the Trefoil or Triphyllian family ; and in the
remaining three is found Gregory, son of Musalacius,
who may be kinsman to the general of the Obsicians
in 778.

§ 5. It is hard to believe that the throne was
quietly transferred, not from an individual but from
a dynasty, without the connivance or approval of the
strongest factor in the State. At all events Nice-
phorus took a very strong step in appointing Bardanes
(Vartan) the Mamigonian to an exceptional position
in Asia, or at least in confirming him in the post
TWV TreVre Qejj.aTwv, says Thph. and

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 399

his continuator) charged with (e<popeia and vppvoia) Exceptional

the full oversight of all. It may be well surmised post created

,, , ,, r ox i_ i j for Armenian

that on the death of Staurace a bolder policy was general in

welcomed in regard to the East, and that in spite Asia-
of the civilian jealousy of these exceptional military
commissions, something like a dictatorship in Asia
was invented to secure the frontier and restore
peace to the interior. This office either dated from
the latter days of Irene, or it was bestowed by Nice-
phorus, — in either case, Bardanes could not have
been wholly ignorant of the revolution of 802, or
wholly acquiescent unless he consented. Constantine
Sathas has perhaps too sweepingly pronounced that
changes on the throne from 700 to the Venetian
capture in 1204 were invariably the work of the
Asiatic troops. If so, the elevation of Nicephorus
the Arabian provides a notable exception, unless
we suppose that here, once more, an Armenian
officer preferred to delegate rather than usurp the
chief place. But his approval of Nicephorus was
soon changed into hostility. His soldiers hurried
along a path of perilous ambition a general who was
brave, equitable in dividing the spoils, and animated
by no friendly feeling towards a hated civilian
exactor. Like some general in the third century, His dis-
or like Julian in the fourth, he is forced to take the c^nt and
dangerous step by the urgent entreaties and threats
of his men. Only the Armeniacs stood out, and their
refusal is somewhat puzzling. Bardanes the Turk
(6 Tovpicos), who was no more an orthodox Christian
than Nicephorus or Michael II., took the precaution
(so runs the story) of consulting a wizard. The
purple is promised to his two companions-in-arms,
Leo and Michael, but he and Thomas are classed
together as pretenders destined to fail. The two His
obscure captains, on whom rested the shadow of Ar™enian
coming greatness, lost no time in separating them- Leo joins
selves from a countryman who had aimed too high. Nicephorus.
Leo was the son of Bardas, who after holding com-

400 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

His

Armenian
officer Leo
joins
Nicephorus.

Armenian
conspirator
only overcome
by Armenian
aid.

mission as (rrpartjyo^ in Armenia under Leo IV., had
joined the unsuccessful plot of 780, and had been
whipped and cashiered. But his disgrace had not
prejudiced his son's promotion in the ancestral art
of the condottieri. His family claimed Arzrounian
descent (Kar^Orj yap CK ru>v Sei/a^^oe^, says George
Monachus), a family or princely dynasty owning vast
territory in Southern Armenia, towards the moun-
tains of Kurdistan and Assyria. (The prevalent
passion for tracing descent from Assyrian, Persian,
or Armenian stock appears clearly in Leo, in
Theophobus, and Theodora ; lastly in Basil, the
so-called Macedonian, whose pedigree was written
up by Photius, to show a clear lineage from the
Arsacidae.) Nicephorus welcomed the friends of the
pretender. Each received a post of trust and an
estate of good emolument ; Leo became chief of
the Federates ((poiSepaTwv), and enjoyed the imperial
domain (/3aa-i\iKov OLKOV) of Zeno and Dagistheus :
Michael was appointed count of the court (KOJULW
Kooprrjs), or seneschal of the imperial tent, and
received the rents of the estate of Carianus. Once
more, the only way to overcome an Armenian
competitor was to depend on Armenian aid. The
revolt ended in the flight of the regretful Bardanes,
his entrance into a convent, and the sinister story of
his loss of sight at the hands of some wild Lycaonians
(\vKavO pwTToi, says Thph.). Public rumour asserted
that these were sent by Nicephorus himself, though
he not only denied complicity, but mourned seven
days for his unhappy rival. Even if the worst side
of the story be true (and we have every reason to
distrust contemporary witness about Nicephorus I.),
it says much for the humanity of the times that
he thought it worth while to pretend sorrow for a
punishment, which in any other age would have been
deemed ridiculously inadequate.

§ 6. Harun in 803 advanced right up to the
Bosphorus, and this time he carried with him a tame

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 401

aspirant to the legitimate purple, Thomas, the son of A false Con-
Mousmar. This person has been supposed to be s*antineYL
identical with the companion of Bardanes and the Harun.
later rebel whose sedition wrought havoc throughout
Lesser Asia. But the foreign authorities state that he
claimed to be the " son of Constantine VI.," palpably
impossible by computation of age, and wholly irre-
concilable with the later " white hair " of the pre-
tender of 823. Constantine VI. himself might have
been just over fifty in the time of Michael II. ;
and we cannot conceive that one who claimed to be
his son should then show marks of old age. No
doubt he gave out that he was Constantine himself,
a legitimate scion of a successful dynasty, still
popular with a large number of the subjects of
Rome. Harun knew, and in secret scorned, the
imposture, but he outwardly treated the pretender
Constantine with the respect due to his dignity.
But this bold enterprise, like all the incursions of
Harun, had no result ; and the militant caliph of
romance died in 809, having wrought great and
purposeless mischief to the Roman commonwealth.
In 806 Bardanes Anemas, clearly an Armenian Armenian

minister, was charged (so the authorities report) to ministers and
[ &. _; . t r • • i conspirators.

reduce the settlers in Thrace to the level of imperial

serfs, tilling imperial demesne-land. Once again in
808, an Armenian appears as plotting against the
emperor, Araates, of Camsar extraction, and qncestor
(or chancellor) ; Nicephorus, with the tired or ironi-
cal clemency characteristic of his reign, cut his hair
and sent him to meditate in a Bithynian monastery.
Our accounts of Nicephorus come from garbled and
prejudiced sources ; and it is from Abulpharagius
that we learn that he was a gallant prince, by no
means despised by his Oriental foes or invariably
unsuccessful in warfare. It cannot be denied that
his attachment to Hellenic orthodoxy, or even to
Christianity, lay under deserved suspicion. I am not
inclined to dismiss summarily, as the unscrupulous

VOL. II. 2 C

402 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Armenian
ministers and
conspirators.

Success and
elevation of
Leo the
Armenian
(813).

scandal of political or religious partisans, the stories
of his heretic sympathies or pagan practices. He
was the cordial friend (SiaTrvpos (j)i\os) of Manichees,
that is, of Paulicians, whom he allowed to found a
little State in Armenia. Like Michael, he consorted
with the mysterious Athingans of Phrygia ; his
Lycaonians were not merely rough henchmen but
disseminators of heresy. He consulted gipsies and
soothsayers ; he submitted to a rite resembling the
Mithraic taurobolium. If he was not, like Leo, a
determined Iconoclast, it was merely because he was
devoid of religious conviction ; himself of Arabian
descent, he reminds one of the Morescoes — an out-
ward conformity concealing an utter indifference.
Leo the " Assyrian " was made by him crrparriyos
of the Armeniacs, and, like his greater " Isaurian "
namesake just one hundred years earlier, he lost
his military chest — not this time through treachery,
but by carelessness. The emperor is content with
a beating and a sentence of exile. He owed his
advancement to a victory over Thebith in an
Arabian inroad ; and to a curious act of perfidy at
the great battle of Adrinople, in which, following so
soon after the death of Nicephorus, every other
empire but the Byzantine must have succumbed
(June 22, 813). It is perhaps unwise to trust the
biassed and clerical historians ; and the same doubt-
ful tale is told of Decius' successor, Gallus (251), and
of Romanus I. (919). In any case, Leo had not
lost the affection of his Oriental troops, or the con-
fidence of the capital. It is more than likely that
the Armeniacs were determined to make something
out of their employment on a European shore, out-
side their own province, and to claim the usual
prerogative of the troops of Anatolia in creating and
unmaking princes.

§ 7. Over these important forces, at least over the
Armeniacs, Leo V. placed Manuel, an Armenian and
a Mamigonian. His own son Sembat he created

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 403

colleague and Augustus, changing his name to the Success and
ever-popular Constantine, like Leo III., whom he set elevation of
before him as his model. John the Grammarian is Armenian
made patriarch of the Morochorzenian clan ; his (813).
father Bagrad or Pagrat {Y\.ajKpario<s), and his brother
Arsharis ('Apcraprj?) sufficiently display their nation-
ality. Leo is displaced by another bold and ignorant
soldier of fortune, Michael of Amorium ; and in the
absence of any legal ruler, the succession is con-
tested with equal right by Thomas, son of Mousmar.
I will not here dwell on the peculiar character of Serious
this revolt (821-3). The Obsicians and Armeniacs fheen^eto
did not join the pretender, but his ranks were swelled under
not merely by needy Socialists but by Saracen sub- Michael II.
sidies and detachments of Parsee dualists. It was a
strange assortment ; Thomas himself was called in-
differently a Slavonian, a Scythian, or the son of a
Byzantine emperor ; and his host represented every
race, creed, and nation of the East. Twice he
attacked the capital ; and fell at last, no doubt
because he could not undermine the loyal attach-
ment of the Armenians to the candidate who was
first in the field. The short reign of Michael II.
gave little prognostic of the future splendour of the
dynasty. Crete was torn away (824), and continued
in detachment until its recovery by Phocas under
Romanus II. (962). Sicily was almost entirely lost
to the Saracens (827), and the slender cord of senti-
ment or tribute which bound the remote Dalmatian
coast was snapped, if we may trust the terse and
summary dictum of Scylitza (Cedrenus) ('A^eo-rcm/cre
Traa-a r\ AaX/xar/a). Indeed, like Gallienus (260—268),
the emperor merely joked about the loss of territory
as modifying the toil of his office. There were not
wanting those who reminded him that with a few
more such lightenings of labour, the imperial dignity Armenian
would become superfluous. Indeed, it seems quite helP and
clear that the heart, the vigour, and the policy of ^J^^/
Rome lay solely in the Armenian mountains. The to Rome.

404 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Armenian steadiness of the Eastern frontier during the reigns of
Xr<? Leo V' and Michael H-i the restoration of order and
indispensable plenty after Thomas' destructive insurrection, were
to Rome. ftue ^Q fa^ loyalty of Asiatic troops under Manuel ;
and the true inner history of the empire should be
written rather from some frontier citadel in the East
than from the palace in the capital. The real and
serious happenings might be told by tracing not the
series of pageant emperors but the records of Manuel,
John Curcuas (920-942), or Nicephorus Phocas and
Zimisces : and these do less for the commonwealth
in the purple than as simple generals of the East.
So indispensable was the Armenian influence that we
may at once discount the pleasing legend of the
marriage of Theophilus. Policy, not whim or
accident, dictated such an alliance. Theodora is a
niece of the brave champion of the East, and the
whole family are staunch Armenians and marry
husbands of the same nation ; her sister Mary is
found united to Arshavir, a jmdyiarrpos, possibly the
brother of the patriarch John. Throughout the
reign (829-842), Manuel and Theophobus the t( Per-
sian " are the principal commanders ; Theophobus
is rewarded by the highest dignities of the realm,
the hand of the emperor's sister, Helen, and at last
by suspicion, disgrace, and death.
Services to § 8. From Persarmenia too comes Babec, for five

!ir2^e0/ vears rebel aSainst the suzerain caliph (c. 831), with
under 7000 men of his own country. These settled at

Sin°Pe> like the Mardaites at Attalia, formed an
independent military commonwealth, raised their
numbers to fourteen and subsequently to thirty
thousand, and gave the court anxious moments when
they desire to restore a national monarchy in the
person of Theophobus. For he succeeded to the
captaincy of the formidable band on Babec's death ;
and the " Persians " are loaded with favours and legal
privileges ; intermarriage is permitted and encouraged ;
and the soldiers rise to the highest titles and places in

Theophobus.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (740-840) 405

the military service of the empire (pao-tXiKoi? a^iw^acnv, Services to
KU>$I%I orrpaTun-ucois). Theophanes' continuator tells '%£*£ °f
us with pardonable hyperbole, oXov e'Ovo? VTTYIKOOV, and under

Leo Grammaticus adds the significant item that down Theophilus;
, . . n i - Alexis and

to his day there are detachments called Tovpju.cu Theophobus.

ireparwv in all the themes, — whose origin we shall
presently have occasion to remark. These troops
surround Theophilus the " unfortunate " in the dis-
astrous battle of 835 ; and Manuel saves his life. In
the same year Manuel, more an ally than a subject,
crosses over to the caliph ; and having repented him
of his magarizing, is welcomed with open arms by
Theophilus and obtains the title of Magister and. Domestic
of the Schools. This easy exchange of masters must
excite our surprise ; but the " Persians " or Pers-
armenians had brought their traditional policy with
them into the imperial service. Naturally desirous
of independence, they had played off one illustrious
power against the other, had received an Arsacid
ruler of alien race, had coquetted with Sassanids,
and had paid tribute to the caliph. Religious dis-
putes had prevented a genuinely cordial attachment
to their proper suzerain. A purely feudal system of
society had put annexation under a centralised
bureaucracy out of the question, and had rendered
suspicious the proffers of Armenian help or the
entreaties of Armenian distress. It is not unlikely
that the perplexing and meteor-like career of another
compatriot may be traced to the suspicions of the
court and ministries ; and we may assume that the
young Alexis Mouschegh (Mo^Ae) owed his eleva-
tion and his downfall to the indirect influence of the
Armenian faction. Might not Theophilus, alarmed
not without reason at the rising fame of his wife's
brother, burdened with a debt of gratitude to her
uncle, desire to find a rival to this coalition, and find
it only in another Armenian ? Distinguished in the
defence of Sicily, Alexis was summoned home to
receive the successive steps of patrician, proconsul,

406 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF rav. B

Services to
the empire of
Armenia
under
Theophilus ;
Alexis and
Theophobus.

Armenia
itself attached
to caliphate.

magister (always an especial honour), and lastly
Caesar : revival of a title not employed since Con-
stantine V. gave it charged with misery to his cadets.
He is betrothed to the emperor's daughter, and sent
again to Sicily as its General and Duke. But on the
death of the infant princess, and on the birth of a
son, afterwards Michael III., Theophilus, amidst the
envious voices of courtiers, had no longer the same
need of his services or the same confidence in his
loyalty. He was recalled, whipped, and immured
in a dungeon ; and as speedily reinstated in favour
and dignities. But Alexis and his brother Theo-
dosius were weary of such vicissitudes, and retired at
the moment of the final triumph of innocence into a
cloister. In 837 occurred the famous proclamation
of Theophobus as king not of Rome but of the
Persians : the troops were distributed through the
older themes of Asia, and the suspicion leads in the
end (842) to the murder of Theophobus, the last act
of the dying emperor. Next year we find Armenia
wholly attached to the caliphate : following its
armies are the chief of the Bagratids and the leader of
Vasparacan, the former bearing the title " Prince of
princes," while the latter, Ashot, Arzrounian, and
therefore kinsman of Leo V., bore that of simple
" Prince." With this rapid increase in Armenian
influence in the high places of the empire, this
practical monopoly of Armenian defence in the
imperial military system — this curious antipathy to
Rome in the land itself — we pass to a new age, an
established dynasty, and the altered policy of pre-
tenders or rather regents, all of Armenian birth.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 407

ARMENIANS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE EMPIRE
FROM MICHAEL III. (842), TO THE END OF
ROMANUS I. (944)— (840-940)

§ 1. Theoctistus the eunuch, chief minister of the Roman
young prince, looked eastwards for the warrior's et^p^^,w!
laurels which always eluded him. In 843 he led Bardas'and
an expedition to the eastern shores of the Euxine Theoctistus.
to bring succour to the people of Lazica, or rather,
if we look more closely, to punish a revolt. For
the Arabs had not in effect penetrated so far ; they
held in vassalage, especially when the emir of
Melitene took the lead (838), the feudal princes of
our Oriental Poland, but they had not yet challenged
Roman supremacy on the Black Sea or among the
tribes of the Caucasus. Yet the Roman Empire was
very weak in those climes, and the abolition of
Chersonese autonomy under Theophilus, so much re-
gretted and censured by historians, may well have been
a necessary act. It involved a permanent garrison
and military law in a district threatened by Patzinaks
and Russians, and half-way between the capital and
its dubious vassals or allies in Abasgia. Some
years before, 832, Bardas and Theophobus had been
sent on a similar enterprise ; and neither seems to
be attended with any conclusive results. It would
appear that all loyal Armenians had sought refuge and
settlements on Roman ground, leaving the magarizing
faction to swell the armies of Islam. This alone
can account for the diversity of feeling between the
trustworthy officers of the Roman army (if we except
Manuel's lapse), and the antipathy of the natives in
their own country. We have now arrived at the Rise and
most notable instance of Armenian success, — Basil ^^f^0^
the Macedonian, Armenian and Arsacid ; whose Armenian.
mother's family descended from the great Constantine ;
who boasted on both sides Alexander of Macedon

408 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Rise and as ancestor. His forefathers (deriving from the
eSlthe°f christian kin£ Tiridates) claimed the hospitality of
Armenian, the Roman Empire, either, as was then believed
(Genesius), in the days of Leo I. (457—474), under
whom they settled in Macedonian Nice ; or as
Saint Martin with more likelihood, under the great
Justinian, when Artaban and his kin entered the im-
perial service. That the story of Armenian colonists
is not purely mythical is clear from the mention of
Cordylus and his son Bardas at the time of Crum's
ravages, 810-820 (during which time the latter,
obviously of Armenian birth, was chief of a Mace-
donian settlement beyond the Danube) ; from the
name of Basil's brother, Sembat (2u/x/3arto9, Geo.
Mon.). And it must be obvious to the student that
" Macedonian " is a vox nihili ; there was no settled
population of the Balkan peninsula that predated the
Slavonic incursions except in the towns ; and it is
clear that Basil was not a Slav, and that his elevation
was not a revenge for the failure of Thomas (823).
On the other hand, we must not press unduly the
serious motives or deliberate policy which raised the
handsome groom who was neither soldier nor civilian.
It was no military nomination such as we have in
other Roman and Byzantine pretenders, called in
to retrieve the errors or neglect of a worn-out
dynasty. We must leave it as an instance of cap-
ricious selection by a legitimate monarch of a
colleague, whose tact disarmed envy and hostility
and enabled him to rise to an unchallenged and
sovereign position from the murder of his bene-
Basil invested factor. The first act of Basil was to display his
5fl0rLi«r veneration for his ancient fatherland ; in 867, he
monarch. heard from an Armenian bishop that a Bagratid
prince had the right to crown the head of the house ;
just as in later time the solemn act of coronation
has become the privilege of certain archiepiscopal
sees. Basil despatched Nicetas to Ashot I., founder,
amid the disorders of the caliphate, of the Bagratid

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 409

line of kings ; he sent him in reply a rich crown, Basil invested
and Nicodemus carried back a grateful letter from b-' the new

the emperor addressed to " my beloved son." This monarch.
interchange of courtesies was maintained during the
reign of Leo VI.

§ 2. In the plot against Bardas the regent (866), Notable
Sembat, his son-in-law, Armenian and Bagratid, was ^™weman
an accomplice with his own brother Bardas; and emerge;
the truly Oriental list of conspirators includes besides, Maleinus,
an Assyrian, a Chaldean (from near Trebizond), and p^m^'
a Bulgarian. In the same year the disappointed Argyrus.
schemer Sembat rebelled against the influence of
Basil, now a full associate in the empire and charged
with all its serious business. He is reduced by
Nicephorus Malei'nus, an Armenian noble of one of
those prolific and warlike families which produced
the Phocas and Zimisces of the next century. In
872 Basil in an Eastern expedition receives, like some
German emperor, the repentant homage of a brigand
chief, Curticius, who from the safe fastness of Locano's
castle had secured wide territory and wrought havoc
on Roman land ; this petty feudal tyrant brings over
his men-at-arms with him. In 879 occurred another
Armenian conspiracy which introduces us to a notable
name. John Curcuas (Gourgenes ?) captain of the
Hicanates (ucavaToi, a corp dating from c. 800), lured,
like many other usurpers, by a lying soothsayer,
attempted to secure a throne, for which, as it seemed,
the sole condition was Armenian descent. He lost
his sight, and his partisans were whipped. One
cannot wonder at the severity with which divination
was pursued in the empire (e.g. under Valens, c. 370),
when designing men worked on empty and credulous
brains with such hopes. The treason of Bardas had
not harmed the career of Leo V., his son ; and it
is a pleasing trait in Byzantine manners that military
promotion was bestowed on the sons of traitors.
Curcuas the younger, in the next century, hero of
a prose-epic in eight books, is the guardian of the

410 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.B

Notable
Armenian
families
emerge ;

Curcuas,

Phocas,

Argyrus.

Intimate and
tactful
relations of
Leo VI. with
Armenia :
expansion of
empire to-
wards East.

Eastern frontier and fitting companion of the great
warriors of his nation, Phocas and Zimisces. And,
indeed, about this time (880) emerged the first
Phocas (Nicephorus) to attain renown ; he had
served with ability and courage against the Western
Saracens in Sicily, and about 886 was sent to curb
their Eastern kinsmen. Leo VI. pays him a generous
tribute for his ready inventiveness in strategy : and
for over a century there will be few years un-
marked by the valour or the revolt of a Phocas. He
desolated Cilicia up to the gates of Tarsus ; for the
border wars were still merely forays, raids of vendetta,
without fixed policy. In 891, he is " Governor of
Lydia " ; and for many years formed an iron bulwark
to the east frontier, ravaging Syria and checking
any advance of Islam. He left three sons, Michael,
Leo, and Bardas. Another family of repute emerges
at this time, that of Argyrus ; — Leo was sent by
Michael III., c. 850, against the Paulician strong-
hold of Tephrice ; his grandson Eustathius is a great
territorial magnate in Charziane (Cappadocia), whither
after good service to the State he is banished : his
recall or rather exile to his lands being procured
by the envy of a friend Himerius. He may well
have belonged to a family of settlers originally
Armenian ; but he is at any rate a good instance
of a type meeting us with increasing frequency, —
the military leader and feudal lord, having great
possessions in a certain district ; in the intervals of
warlike duties exercising there the functions of a
clan-chieftain among kinsmen, of a landlord among
serfs.

§ 3. Leo VI. continued the policy of his (putative ?)
father, and drew closer the bonds of Roman-Armenian
alliance. Ashot I. visits the Roman court at some
time early in the reign (perhaps in 888) and left a
detachment of troops, who were employed against
the Bulgars. The captain was Melric or Mel (and
I am unable to sympathise with M. Brosset in identi-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 411

fying him with Curticius) ; we shall hear again of Intimate and
this captain. Escaping from this unsuccessful en- t^^m8 Oj
counter, Mel is reported to have returned with his Leo VI. with
band to Lesser Armenia, founded a fort in Lycandus ^m^^ f
(district of Dchahan) and enabled Leo VI. to boast l^p™to- °'
that another theme was added to the empire under wards East.
his sway : (when somewhat later we find Arabians
writing of " Mleh Demeslicos "it is impossible not to
connect the name with this captain). In 893 Leo
received envoys from Sembat, the new Bagratid king,
to apprise him of his succession ; they paid homage,
and it is said that the two sovereigns exchanged
gifts each year during this reign. Towards the close
of the century (perhaps in 898), Gregory (Tpriyopis),
son of Vahan, the Bagratid prince of Taron, came
into somewhat peculiar relations with the empire :
like many of his peers, he was careful to keep on
friendly terms with both powers. His doubtful faith
was reported at court ; and he imprisoned the two
Armenians who, as he supposed, had carried the tale.
But they had a powerful advocate in King Sembat,
their kinsman ; and he asks the emperor to secure
their deliverance from duress. Gregory sends a
hostage to court, and is so charmed by his treatment
there, and the kindness of Leo, that he releases the
two captives under escort of his brother Apoughan.
He came himself to Constantinople and received
the title fjLdyiarrpos, while his brother was made
patrician ; and the firm alliance was ratified by a
marriage within the imperial house. In the latter
years of his reign, Leo achieved a similar diplomatic
triumph, and once more added a theme to the provinces
of the empire: three brothers, owners of land be-
yond the Euphrates, north of Melitene, gave them-
selves up to the emperor as his " men " ; and, like
Melias or Mel, received back their canton as the theme
of Mesopotamia, of which one of the three became
the first governor. Private enterprise thus became
the pioneer of Imperialism.

412 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Multi-
plication of
petty

sovereignties
in Armenia
in decay of
caliphate.

§ 4. To the student, it is clear that the principles
and methods, the rules and conditions, of feudalism
were perfectly understood and practised by the Roman
court long before the Crusaders brought eastwards
the name " liegeman" (A^o?) and the formal con-
stitution of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Evidently
Leo VI. took full advantage of the disorders and
incoherence which these feudal tendencies produced
in Armenia. Everywhere the example of the dis-
integrating caliphate was eagerly followed by the
princelets. Kingdoms (of the smallest extent and
most precarious tenure) are multiplied ; every noble
claims for clan or manor complete immunity ; and
family divisions increase the number and weaken
the power of minute sovereign states. The Roman
Empire was the residuary legatee amid such con-
fusion. It alone stood upright in the ruins of the
Orient, — an orderly, amiable, and peaceful common-
wealth, mild in its laws, Christian in its belief, tactful
and courteous in its dealings with lesser potentates.
Greater Armenia was portioned out, like mediaeval
Germany, between nobles who strove to maintain
independence against Roman and Saracen alike.
Such was " Cricorice " of Taron, between Taurus
and Euphrates, in whose strange name we recognise
the diminutive of Gregory, Gregoritza (as from Theo-
philus we have 0eo<^Arr<^?, the early patron of Basil).
There is " Symbaticius " (a similar Grecized form for
" little Sembat ") who might claim to be the chief
of these petty sovereigns ; he bore the title " Prince
of princes " and ruled undisputed from Kars to Lake
Van, a district henceforth called Vasparacan. There
is besides the northerly Iberian prince, Adranasar,
still enjoying, of hereditary right rather than by direct
imperial collation, the dignity of " Curopalat." The
relation between these feudal princes and the empire
strongly resembled the nominal vassalage of the
Mongolian or Tibetan chiefs to the court of Pekin.
The emperor in each case received presents, or

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 413

perhaps " tribute " ; but was expected to surpass the Multi-
costliness of these gifts by lavish munificence, and to pp^™tion of
pension superannuated scions of the princely houses sovereignties
and dignify the rural clan-leader with some imperial »» j™en*f
dignity. He provided wives (as under Justinian I. c«/«/LL
in Colchis) from noble and senatorial families at
home : he exchanged lands inside the safer circuit of
the empire for districts of peril beyond the Euphrates.
To this policy must be largely attributed the ex-
tension of the empire to the shores of the Caspian,
which took place quietly enough in the next hundred
years. Of these records we hear little amidst the
din of the Bulgarian campaign and the more brilliant
and less durable victories in the lower East.

§ 5. In 911 (the year of Leo's demise) Sembat L, Appeal of
king of Armenia, was reduced to hopeless impotence ^™e™an
by the insubordinate nobles. He had recourse to empire (911).
the empire ; and John Catholicos is in error in
naming Basil as the object of his entreaties. But
Leo dies, and Alexander was by no means inclined
to venture on a distant enterprise. To the troubled
dignity his son, Ashot II., succeeds in 914 ; who, like
some chivalrous Gothic king in Spain, forms a
chosen band and harries the Moslem. He secures
the crown rather in virtue of his exploits against the
unbeliever than as a birthright. He chases Arabs
from Tiflis, and ravages Aderbaijan. He allied with
" Aternerseh " (the Adranasar mentioned above),
Bagratid king of Iberia, who had secured the kingly
title (c. 900) by the direct recognition of Sembat I.,
happier in his external relations than in his domestic
policy. This coalition, joined by Gourgenes, king
of Abasgia, reduced or overawed the petty feudal
tyrants and secured the coronation of Ashot II. in
915. Royalty saw in the emperor a suzerain and a
champion, fount of honour and legitimate dispenser
of dignities ; aristocracy preferred the Moslem
alliance. Under the not incapable regency of Zoe
(914) a Vasparacanian prince offered aid against the

414 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Appeal of
Armenian
king to
empire (911).

Consistent
Imperialism
of Armenian
royalty;
nobles and
people thwart
alliance.

Saracens ; and Constantine VII. in his first brief rule
follows a sympathetic policy with regard to Ashot II.,
confronted with a perilous confederacy of Moslem
governors and his own unruly nobles. The emperor
was astonished that the willing assistance of the
empire had not been solicited. A Greek patriarch
condescends to write to the heretical Armenian
Catholicos a letter of friendly sympathy and advice :
" The emperor is sincerely concerned at the distress
of Armenia, and begs you to rouse the kings to
united efforts on its behalf." John the Catholicos
succeeded with Adranasar II. and obtained his aid ;
while Gourgenes wrote in reply to the emperor a
letter which is curiously typical of the attitude of
these kings of the East to Rome : " Only give us an
asylum in the empire and all Armenians will follow
us across the border and will settle there and be-
come loyal subjects." The emperor (who was now
Romanus Lecapenus, 920) invited Ashot the " Iron"
and John to Constantinople ; the latter refuses, not
wishing to scandalise his flock by communicating
with heretics who accepted the detested Council of
Chalcedon ; the former is warmly welcomed, and
returns with prestige and hopefulness enhanced
to an enthusiastic people, already beginning to repair
the damage of successive Moslem inroads. A small
Roman force secures the submission of two re-
calcitrant cities or forts ; and are then sent back
with a wise confidence in the native allegiance. Ashot
is now joined by his brother Abbas, returning from
his refuge with the grand prince of Abasgia, whose
daughter he married. With this the fortunes of the
little kingdom began to revive. But the same
hindrances stood in the way of any certain alliance ;
the distaste of the feudal nobility for the methods of
Rome ; the prejudice of the people at large against
the " heretical council." We may anticipate a few
years in order to supply another instance — in 926,
Gagic or Cakig, king of Vasparacan, earnestly desired

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 415

to conclude an alliance with the empire. But the Consistent

lords protested, and hurled at the diplomacy and

arms of the " Greeks " those taunts of faithlessness royalty ;

and cowardice, which have been re-echoed down to nobles and

_.. , . , people thwart

the present day. The clergy insist on a recon- alliance.

ciliation of the Churches before a national alliance is
suggested. The king therefore wrote to the Byzantine
patriarch, pointing out the trivial points (as he con-
sidered them) of disagreement between the hostile
creeds, and the greater and nobler issues at stake
in a confederacy of two Christian powers against a
common foe. But the letter remained unanswered ;
the tolerant and broad-minded monarch was before
his time ; and an immaterial discrepancy on a subtle
point of metaphysics prevented the alliance. In the
latter days of the Eastern empire the reunion of the
Churches failed for a similar reason.

§ 6. Once more the Taronites on the hither side of Submission of

Lake Van claim our attention. Here, as elsewhere ^Taronites

to the empire
in feudal and limited monarchies permeated by (c. 930).

family feeling, a system of patrimonial subdivision
was in vogue. At Gregory's death, the province of
Taron was portioned between his children ; and in
926 (the same year we have just been considering)
Bagrat, a son, visits the Roman capital and marries
a daughter of Theophylact, a close kinsman of the
regent-emperor Romanus I., whose father (it will be
remembered) bore the same name. He was also
created a patrician, and received investiture for that
district of the Taronite principality (the Armenian
" Saxony ") which recognised suzerainty. About the
same time his cousin Thornic (in which we clearly
see the later title Torntrius, a rebel under the tenth
Constantine) surrendered his hereditary lands to the
empire, on condition of receiving an equivalent at
the Byzantine court, — Constantinople being not
merely the goal of barbarian greed, but the Mecca
or (if it be preferred) the Paris of Armenian
nobles. Sembat, his brother, followed the pre-

416 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.B

Submission of cedent, and sank into a dignified pensioner in
fo^helmpirl the caPital 5 onlY Vahan, the third, remained in his
(c. 930). native province ; thus the Taronite family divided
its members between the luxurious comfort of Byzan-
Extension of tium and the exacting duties of clan-chieftaincy. —
Roman guf- ^g empjre was not merely a diplomatic dealer

influence „. . j j M. t j • * • -A

by diplomacy m alliance, pensions, and orders, it could maintain its

and by war. cause in the last resort by force of arms. Desultory
warfare (not easy to distribute in years or campaigns)
meets us from the last year of Leo VI. Lalacon,
with the Armeniac troops, is sent to ravage Colchis ;
and Catacalon, his successor, recovers Theodosiople
(near Arzeroum), sacks Phasiane, and humbles the
pride of some mysterious foe, variously supposed to
be the Colchians or the Saracens: neither purport
nor event of these expeditions is clear. A dispute
ensued with the king of Iberia, who quietly occupied
Theodosiople on the retirement of the Roman troops
under Catacalon. Remonstrance was made on the
part of the empire, but it was finally agreed that the
Araxes should be the limit of Roman authority, and all
territory to the north should be surrendered to Iberia.
Curcuas, soon succeeding for his brilliant twenty-two
years' defence of the frontier, turned his attention
rather to the southern district and to Vasparacan. In
the neighbourhood of Lake Van many cities seemed to
be occupied chiefly by Moslem ; and when he reduced
the towns of Akhlat and Bitlis he granted terms to
the inhabitants on this curious and significant con-
dition— that a cross should be planted in the middle
of the mosque. We may well pause for a moment
to contrast the demands of a strong central govern-
ment with the fanciful and trivial stipulations of
feudal tenure, flattering to vanity, but useless as a
guarantee of service or fidelity. Religious piety
about this term dictated a somewhat costly bargain,
when very substantial concessions (both of captives
and advantages) were made by Romanus I. (942) to
secure the miraculous veil of Edessa.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (840-940) 417

§ 7. Such, then, were the relations of the empire Universal
with the petty Christian kingdoms and principalities ^^^n
of the East down to the retirement of the regents Armenia.
(944, 945). The period had been prolific in bring-
ing to birth fresh independent sovereignties. The
country from the Caucasus to Kurdistan was a motley
patch-work (like mediaeval Germany), not merely of
immune baronies but of full-blown royalties, multi-
plying and vulgarising the regal title. Over all
these miniature kingdoms or principalities the Roman
Empire exercised a potent charm. Except by the
sovereign, the masterful and methodic system was
not beloved ; the nobles disliked its rigour, the
clergy its doctrine. But it was the secure and
dignified asylum for the dispossessed exile ; it was
the sole fount of honour in bestowing those empty
titles and positions which from Clovis onwards had
secured the homage of powerful kings. Certainly
at the end of this epoch the ties are very much
closer than at the beginning ; and there is no waning
in the preponderating influence which the Armenian
race exercised within the empire and in the imperial
service. Lecapenus is a member of this militant
caste or aristocracy, inured to arms from childhood
and invariably following the ancestral craft : his
father Theophylact saved Basil's life, and one of the
last acts of Leo VI. was to appoint the son High
Admiral. Like Nicephorus Phocas (963) and Ro-
manus IV. (1067), he rises to place and power
against the anxious interest of the courtiers, by the
favour of an empress and his own troops. He up-
held, not unworthily, the repute of Rome, and after
a quarter of a century gave way to a " legitimate "
monarch, whom at one time he could have displaced
without peril. The chief Armenian hero of the time Exploits and
is John Curcuas, who in his long Eastern lieutenancy s^ecuo^the
quietly prepared the way for the more familiar Armenian.
achievements of Phocas and Zimisces. Son of the
blinded pretender, whose failure we have noticed (879),

VOL. II. 2 D

418 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Exploits and
success of
Curcuas the
Armenian.

he became sergeant of gendarmerie, and arrested
some conspirators in 919. In 920 he went east-
ward with wide and ample powers : defended Syria
and Euphrates, repressed the Moslem, and overthrew
a significant plot of Bardas Bo'ilas to erect an inde-
pendent Armenian governorship within the empire
and imitate the emirs of the caliphate, who like the
imperial counts of the West were daily claiming
independence. (This is variously referred to the
years 924 and 936.) This rebellion again excited
the infidel to reap profit from Roman dissensions.
But Curcuas never lost a battle ; he carried fire and
sword into their country, recovered Malatiyah, and
employs its colleague-emirs as trusty allies. When
on their death the town again closes its gates against
the empire, Curcuas with Melias of Lycandus (a
feudal warrior-chief, but also a loyal subject) again
reduces and razes it to the ground. Once more the
Euphrates flowed " under Roman laws." The troops
of Curcuas were recognised as the flower of the
army, and the most efficient force in the empire ; in
a Russian peril they are hastily summoned across the
continent to take part in the capital's defence (941).
It was Curcuas who really began the great work of
consolidation on the Eastern frontier with a resolute
design which never faltered. Himself born in Lesser
Armenia, son of a soldier, he is the father of Romanus
Curcuas, a captain of distinction under Nicephorus
in the pursuit of the same policy. His brother
Theophilus, Ao^ of Chaldia, is noticed as a strenuous
provincial governor, and was the grandfather of
Zimisces. Curcuas became a popular hero (his life
was written by Manuel in eight books, unfortunately
lost), and he suffered at the close of his career the
usual penalty reserved for Armenians of warlike
ability. Here the envious or vindictive influence is
not a secluded sovereign warring against private
wealth or merit (as in some Eastern court), but the
Byzantine official world. He was accused of treason-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 419

able designs, and perhaps the idle sons and colleagues Exploits and
of Romanus were induced to join in the charge. The ^ewL^Me
emperor refused to believe, and despatched secret Armenian.
(and happily impartial) envoys to inquire on the
spot into the behaviour of Curcuas. Their report
disposed of the cabal, and reinstated the general.
Romanus, to mark his approval and delight, pro-
posed to ally the houses of the sovereign - regent
and the generalissimo ; Constantine VIII.'s son was
to be betrothed to Euphrosyne. Once more, the
autocrat is helpless and overborne ; the court is
again aroused to bitter hostility ; and Romanus, with
the deep regret of Charles I., sacrifices his brave
defender to a lighter fate. He is cashiered and
supplanted by Pantherius, a kinsman of the reign-
ing house : according to a custom in favour at Rome,
Damascus, and Bagdad alike, of entrusting the highest
posts only to those who had nothing to gain, and
everything to lose, by disloyalty.

VII

RELATIONS OF ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS TO THE
EMPIRE, FROM THE SOLE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE
VII. (945) TO THE DEPOSITION OF MICHAEL V. (1042)
—(940-1040)

§ 1. The close of the reign of Romanus I. had Religious
been marked in Armenia by religious disputes which separate™
left their sting and trace. About 940, Ber, king of Armenia
Georgian Abasgians (another puzzling subdivision), Srom Rome-
presented himself with a large force before Kars,
where King Abbas, son of Sembat the Bagratid,
was about to consecrate a patriarchal church ; and
requested that the rite employed should be Georgian.
Suspecting his motive, Abbas, after fruitless parleying,
attacked and captured Ber. In the following years
the unappeasable enmity of Greeks and Armenians

Religious

differences

separate

Armenia

fromRome.

Rise and
elevation of
Zimisces the
Armenian.

420 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

became apparent and gave rise to serious dissension,
such as we may witness to-day in Liverpool or
Belfast. Devout Armenians fly from disorder to
the lands of Shirak and Little Vanand ; and to end
the conflict, once more a patriarch Vahanic has the
courage to propose the acceptance of Chalcedon, so
that Armenia might worship in communion with the
Greek and Georgian rite. As with the complaisant
Esdras under Heraclius, the popular indignation
vented itself against the renegade and compelled
him to flee into Vasparacan. About the same time,
religion had led to a singularly disadvantageous
compact ; at the price of the Saviour's letter to
Abgarus of Edessa, the emir had secured the Roman
promise (for what it was worth) never to war against
Edessa, Hara, Sroudj, and Samosata. The reigns
of Constantine VII. and his son were free from
Armenian complications ; but the influence of the
emigrant nobles who formed the military caste in
Roman society was daily increasing. When Bringas
(963), the civil minister, cannot induce Marianus
Apambas, general of Italy, to compass the overthrow
of Nicephorus Phocas, he applies to Zimisces and
his cousin, Romanus Curcuas, — the one, patrician-
general of the East, and related in some way to
Nicephorus ; the other full of hereditary valour, and
son of the brave defender of the border from 920-
942. (Tchemchkik is an Armenian word of doubtful
meaning, which may be found in our maps to-day,
but -kik is a diminutive, and Tchemch is a Persian
word meaning " majestic " ; and the whole might
imply a humorous oxymoron. Ducange believes that
the reading in Leo Diaconus should be fioipoKirfys,
and that the Greek equivalent means "youth") Of
noble family or clan, his mother was in some degree
connected with Nicephorus (as cousin ?), and he was
the great-nephew of the famous Curcuas and grand-
son of his brother Theophilus, governor of Chaldia.
(It is curious to note that Curcuas becomes Gourgen in

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 421

the Armenian chronicles.) Six years later, Zimisces Rise and
consented to be an accomplice and agent in the plot e£{™£™ fhe
he so indignantly rejected in 963 ; to Phocas sue- Armenian.
ceeded an Armenian regent. He took the young
emperors, aged 1 1 and 8, from their retreat in Vasa-
cavan, which under Nicephorus had been chosen for
their exile or their safety ; and he surrounds himself
with a special bodyguard of Armenian fantassins
(Asolik on 971); of the services of the Armenian
infantry under Phocas we have already heard in Leo
Diac. and Abulpharagius.

§ 2. As the object of Basil, his ward and pupil, Zimisces and
was the consolidation of lands in Europe, so before t^e^sadin9
the eyes of Zimisces floated the ideal of a crusader, his eastern

He aimed at the recovery of Jerusalem, Syria, and exploits and
... . , f • , , close relations

Mesopotamia. A great force is collected under w#^

" Mleh Demeslicos " (is not this a scion of the Armenian
family of Melias, creator and governor of Theme roya y'
Lycandus under Leo VI. ? *) ; and in spite of the
covenant of Romanus I., the army ravages the lands
of Edessa, takes Nisibis and Amida (Diarbekir), and
fills the country with carnage. A reverse before
Amida brings the emperor out in person ; he pene-
trated into the Taron district and encamped near
Adziatsberd, where he finds himself confronted
and opposed by a notable coalition of Armenian
nationalists, numbering 80,000. Yet once again
the kings display their Romanising proclivities ; and
Ashot III. and his namesake the king of Vasparacan
act as peacemakers, and end by lending him re-
inforcements. Alarmed at these preparations, the
people of Bagdad loudly accuse the sloth of their
rulers, and insist on urgent measures. We must
elsewhere attempt to trace the political development
of the caliphate and the causes which led to the
seclusion of a Caliph -Mikado ; here we must be

1 Or does Mleh stand for Melek or Malech, Lord or chief Domestic ?
Or, again, is it in any way connected with the later family of Melis-
senus ?

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Zimisces and contented with noting the institution by Rahdi1
the Crusading (934-940) of the Emir-al-Omra's office, which some
Ms eastern years before these events had centred all effective
exploits and authority in this Shogun, — minister or generalissimo.
CW°M n * But (as sometimes in Japan) the chief emir was him-
Armenian self an indolent man of pleasure ; and public indigna-
royalty. ^Qn ^^ ^Q summon^ from the useless pastime of
the chace, a delegate who had in turn delegated all
serious business. Bokhtiar set himself to defend
the capital and raise troops ; he compelled the
unfortunate Commander of the Faithful to sell his
furniture for the purpose. But the Roman peril
vanished like a summer cloud ; while their armies
wrought havoc up to Miafarekin, an imprudence of
the mysterious Domestic Mleh exposed the weakness
of their position and lost at once the advantages of
the campaign. (Indeed, it is disheartening work for
the student to trace the thousand-years' conflict on
the Tigris and Euphrates, and to reflect that in that
long period no serious change was effected in
frontiers or influence, except in the middle of the
seventh and the middle of the eleventh centuries.)
In 974, Zimisces retaliated and reduced the caliph,
or rather the emir, to the payment of tribute, which
we find still paid twelve years later — even amidst the
civil discord and insecurity which filled the early
portion of Basil's reign. We notice, with amuse-
ment but without surprise, that the prudent emperor
refuses to open negotiations on the reunion of the
Churches, suggested by the ex-Patriarch Vahanic,
on the ground that he had been canonically deposed
by his own people. In 97 5, during the great and
comprehensive expedition into Syria, Zimisces sent
Ashot III., his old ally, a full narrative of his visit
to Jerusalem, with a gift of 2000 slaves and 1000
horses, decorating at the same time two Armenian
envoys with the titles " rabounapet " (rabboni) and
philosopher in one case ; and in the other,

1 Or by his immediate predecessor ?

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 423

or protospathaire : so at least run the native accounts of
an enterprise and a compliment otherwise unknown.1

§ 3. In the troublous year 976, after the death of Armenian
Zimisces, the revolt of Sclerus takes on an entirely "^Im^m
Armenian character. His headquarters were in rebellion of
Dchahan and Melitene; there he was saluted em- Sclerus (976).
peror, and there he was joined by Armenian horse-
men. The seat of government and the resources of
the rebellion lay in Mesopotamia ; and while 300
Arab cavaliers fought under his standards, the neigh-
bouring emirs of Diarbekir, Amida, and Miafarekin
cordially assisted the cause. Nor are the native
Armenian princes behindhand ; a brother Romanus
and the two sons (Gregory and Bagrat) of Ashot,
prince of Taron, were to be found amongst his
allies. The rebel fleet was under the command of
Manuel Curticius. The attitude of a certain David
in this civil war is more doubtful ; he is variously
represented as a king of Iberia, or as a prince of
Taik and Curopalat; as an ally of the legitimate
emperor, or as acting in concert with the pretender.
One account tells us that, in exchange for his
support, Basil II. promised to surrender all towns
depending on the empire, in Hark (or Ha'ik ?) and
Apahouni provinces, and in the district of Mardal.
But whatever may have been the aid of this dubious Displeasure

ally, we cannot doubt that, on the whole, Basil had tf Basil and

.. t .,, ,, . outbreak

good reason to be displeased with the Armenian Oy religious

attitude during the rebellion. He was angry with persecution.
the race and the Church ; and he empowered the
metropolitans of Sebaste and Melitene to persecute
the Eutychians. They fail in a design to seize the
Patriarch Khatchic, but succeed so well in stirring
up the bitterest feelings between the two nations
that, in 977, St. Gregory of Narec loses all his popu-

1 Schlumberger does full justice to these Oriental sources in his diffuse
history of the time. But the shapeless and straggling plan of his meri-
torious labour of love makes the narrative very difficult reading to the
eager student.

424

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. B

Displeasure
of Basil and
outbreak
of religious
persecution.

Armenia
suffers
from the
Moslem and
is reconciled
to Basil II.

Legend of
Armenian
origin of
Samuel the
Shishmanid.

larity and is subject to insult, on the mere suspicion
of a desire for reunion with the hated "Greeks."
But the emperor was eminently placable, and has
gained an undeserved renown for merciless cruelty
by a single action during a Western campaign.
Twelve years later (989) he accepts graciously the
surrender of the four princes who had taken part
with Sclerus. One last ember of sedition broke into
flame in the revolt of George, /iaywrjoo?, in Taron,
quickly overthrown by John, general of the Im-
perialists, on the plains of Bagarij. When Sclerus
accepted from his generous rival the title of Curo-
palaty and retired into the dignified privacy which
that title now entailed, Basil had no more com-
petitors to fear. In this same year (989) we read
of an isolated fact which raises our sympathy for
the gallant Armenian struggle for freedom and
worship, between the infidel and the still more sus-
pected Greek. The emir of Akhlat (near Lake
Van), governor of Hark and Apahouni (mentioned
above as offered by Basil to an ally), once more
elevates the defences of Manzikert, which Bardas
Phocas had destroyed, captures Moush, and mas-
sacres the priests there ; Asolik, our informant,
having himself seen the gory traces on the church-
wall. But the chief interest of Basil's reign and
subsequent exploits is now finally transferred to the
West ; and we shall find Armenian characters figur-
ing conspicuously either in actual records or in the
romance of History.

§ 4. In 988 (here too we depend on Asolik) Basil
compelled many Armenians to emigrate into Mace-
donia and settle there ; an instance of that trans-
planting policy which the Byzantines for divers
reasons so often adopted. Carrying into their new
home the hostility and resentment which they had
felt in the East, they lost no time in defaulting to the
Bulgarians ; and in the number of these defaulters
were found Samuel and Manuel, two members of a

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 425

great Armenian family in Derdcham. When in the Legend of
next year (989) Basil, accompanied by the Armenian ^^To/*
annalist, went to the wars and captured Curt, the Samuel the
Bulgarian king, the following strange tale went round : Shishmantd
that it was the Armenian Samuel who placed himself
at the head of the despondent Bulgars, chased the
imperial troops, accepted the title of king, and pro-
posed peace on the terms of marriage with Basil's
sister. Being deceived, like Jacob, by a lady-in-
waiting, he swears undying hatred and commits the
episcopal go-between of the mock marriage to the
flames. It is difficult to say what element of truth
lies embedded in this astounding myth ; perhaps we
may pardon the national conceit of a writer who sees
a compatriot in every gallant foe of the powerful
emperor, an Arsacid on every throne.

Yet Armenians are not wanting to the imperial Armenian
cause ; and several facts point to the noble confidence 0ffce^Sjf^
of Basil, and his ready acceptance of Armenian proffers (990).
of loyalty. He placed in command at Thessalonica
Gregory the Taronite, a Greek patronymic for that
family of princes who, having surrendered their
territorial right between Taurus and Euphrates, were
content to live as pensioners of the Roman court or
captains in the Roman armies. Some members of
the clan had followed Sclerus ; but all were pardoned
and taken into the confidence and intimate service of
the emperor. Again, in his retinue on this occasion,
Basil takes with him a Gregory /uLayia-rpos and his
son Ashot, with Sahak, prince of Handzith. Mean-
time, in the East the mysterious David, prince of
Tai'k, had been enjoying great success against the
various emirs ; he had reconquered land in Vas-
paracan and Ararat. But this success aroused envy,
and he was poisoned in the Eucharist — a rare instance
in this history of treacherous or brutal crime so
familiar in Western annals. He has time to make
a will, bequeathing his little realm to the mighty
empire, much as kings of Pergamus or Bithynia had

426 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Ta'ik

bequeathed to
Rome; Basil
II. removes
religious
disabilities.

The Great
Durbar of
991; Basil
II. receives
fealty of
Armenian
kings.

done in earlier days. At this moment Basil was at
Tarsus (991), and on the news flies northwards with
his habitual impetuosity. Met on the way by the
remonstrances of the Armenian clergy against the
vexations of the Sebastene prelate, he at once annuls
all their religious disabilities, and restored amongst
other privileges the use of bells. At Erez, in the
canton of Archamouni, he received the homage of
the Emir of Neferkert, and, oddly enough, seems to
have ordered his Armenian princely neighbours to
lend him their support in case of need. We may
believe that Basil saw in this nominal vassal of the
imprisoned caliph a useful renegade for his own pur-
poses ; and it is clear, both for the Christian nobles
and the Moslem governors, that independence could
only be preserved by playing off one great power
against the other.

§ 5. The Caucasian monarchs also came to pay
their respects ; Bagrat, king of the Abasgians (a minor
royal dignity, held as apprenticeship by the Iberian
heirs), and his father, Gourgenes, king of Iberia.
Meeting Basil near Mount Hadjitch, they were de-
corated severally with the titles curopalat and magistros ;
and Gourgenes discovered later, to his chagrin, that
he had enjoyed a vastly inferior dignity. Several
Taik princelets do homage, and the harmony is only
broken by the quarrels of a Russian and a Georgian.
On the charge of stolen fodder the whole Russian
contingent make common cause against the pur-
loiners, and defeat the Georgians after slaying their
Ta'ik generals, John and Gabriel, sons of Otchopentir,
and Tchortovanel, son of Abou-Harp (Abel-kharp ?).
Abbas, king of Kars (the hero of the cathedral-
dedication), renders fealty at the same time with
Sennacherib, king of Vasparacan, and his brother
Gourgenes, loaded with gifts. The absence of Gagic
I., king of Ani, from this imperial durbar excited
adverse comment ; a nephew instils into Basil's ear
suspicions of his uncle's motive, while the emperor

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 427

waits with increasing impatience at Bagrevad (in the The Great
province of Hark). Basil orders the district of SS^BtSi
Cogovit and Dzalcot to be ravaged. Some difficulty //. receives
arose, too, out of the envious discontent of the Iberian ^^/
king at his inferior .title ; he works havoc in Taik, hingSf l
and, after recourse to arms, Basil finds it prudent to
cede a portion of this district to Georgia at a con-
vention agreed to at Mount Medzob. (This king,
Gourgenes, left to his son, Bagrat, whose superior
dignity had incensed him, the joint kingdoms of
Abasgia and Iberia ; and he dying ten years before
Basil, in 1015, is followed by his son Georgi, heir
to both crowns.) According to Arabian writers,
Basil occupied at this time (before the close of the
century) the towns of Akhlat, Malazkert, and Ardjich ;
and this famous expedition is followed in the East
by a long peace and silence. It is not until 1016
that we resume the thread of Armenian history,
interrupted for a quarter of a century. The scene Valiant
of events is Vasparacan, where, since Phocas and ^yafpa^acan
Zimisces, a part had been incorporated into the to Seljuks.
empire, part being occupied by petty chieftains, allied
or directly vassals, part still acknowledging an inde-
pendent king, Sennacherib. Upon this little realm
fell the brunt of the Seljukian invasion in its earliest
attacks. Countless Turks invade and penetrate
into the Reschdounian canton. Sapor (who would
seem to have controlled the military resources of the
country) marches to meet them. With him went
the valiant youth David, son of the king ; while the
sovereign himself, charged with the civil and central
government, watched anxiously from his capital at
Van, or at Ostan. The Seljuks carried their ravages
to Dovin and the canton of Nig, actually securing a
portion of Vasparacan. Vasak of Betchni (father of
Gregory, pdyia-rpos by imperial favour, of whom we
shall hear later) joins in defending the country, falls
on the Turks besieging a church, and cuts their
detachment to pieces, cleaving in two a very Goliath

428 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Sennacherib of stature at a single blow. In the very moment of

ofVas- victory, while he was uttering words of pious thank-

paracan . , •" •«•••*

surrenders to fulness, a stone ended his life, and he was venerated

the empire.

Feudal fiefs
within the
empire.

as a martyr in the cause of his religion and his
country. His brother Varanes succeeds as gener-
alissimo of independent Armenia ; a post, like the
Byzantine shogunate in the past century, sometimes
equal in dignity, and generally greater in authority than
the kingship itself. The Armenian troops more than
held their own against the raiders, but Sennacherib,
remembering a prophecy of Nerses about the fate
of their country, convened the grandees, persuaded
them to endorse his proposal of a surrender to
Rome, and despatched his brave son David to the
imperial capital. He was accompanied by the clan-
bishop of the Reschdounians, who could from his
own eye-witness testify to the havoc wrought by the
Turk in his canton : three hundred horses laden with
presents followed in the retinue. David, a prince
after Basil's own heart, was welcomed with fatherly
affection, and solemnly adopted by the childless
monarch in St. Sophia ; 1000 villages or hamlets,
ii fortresses, and 10 cities were transferred to the
direct sway of Rome. Convents and their lands
were only excepted ; but many of their inmates,
together with 400,000 of the people, followed the king
into the safer territory of the empire. They rapidly
build cities for their own use on the Euphrates,
Akh, andArabkur; while Sennacherib, made patrician,
is given Cappadocia to govern as an imperial lieu-
tenant, and receives an appanage very palpably feudal,
in the city and surrounding district of Sebaste, for his
own hereditary usufruct. We know that Basil dis-
trusted the great Asiatic landlords who " joined field
to field" and emulated the latifundia of an earlier
age ; he had removed Eustathius Malei'nus from his
"more than civil" demesnes in 991, and part of the
principality assigned to the ex-king may have com-
prised the estate of Malei'nus (which had at his

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 429

death reverted to the State). The new province was Feudal fiefs
entrusted to Basil Argyrus (a brother of the future with™ the
Emperor, Romanus III.); and on his estrangement ™
from native sympathies, Nicephorus Comnenus was
despatched to consolidate and to pacify. Sennacherib
(according to Armenian accounts) showed his loyalty
to Basil in a peculiar way, for it was he and not
Xiphias who killed Nicephorus Phocas (last pretender
of the famous clan) and sent his head to Basil
(1021).

§ 6. But the Far East gave the veteran emperor Discontent
endless trouble: in 1022, he sets his face towards
Iberia, and marches on Vanand (or Phorac). The (1022).
whole country was up in arms against the Roman
aggression ; the Abasgians were in force, and all the
neighbouring tribes of the Caucasian district joined
the coalition. Basil after some anxiety wins a
decisive engagement, and proceeds to ravage twelve
cantons (according to Samuel of Ani, twenty-four).
He winters in Marmand on the Euxine, and crosses
thence into Chaldia. On September nth a second
battle was fought, in which Liparit, Abasgian general,
was slain. George, the king, flies and sues for
peace, which is granted by Basil in exchange for the
cession of a large district and the surrender of a son
as hostage. Basil treated this youth with the well-
known kindness and whole-hearted confidence of
Byzantine rulers ; he was to him as a son, and re-
ceived the now uncommon title, magister militice
(a-rparriXdrt]^). John, king of Ani, who had also been Proposal to
a moving spirit in the anti-Roman league, finding his s^rei]der

,,. . . ,, - , ,1 Kingdom of

allies surrendering, hurriedly made terms with the Ani to Rome.
empire. Like Sennacherib, he proposed to give up
Ani to Rome on condition of a life-interest re-
served to himself, and an imperial promise to defend
Armenia from the Turks. The Patriarch Peter,
charged with the precious documents, the title-deeds
of a kingdom, arrived at court. Basil treats him
with great respect, enhanced by a miracle of which

430 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Proposal to the emperor was witness. (There are references to

surrender an obscure campaign in Persia in 1022, in which

AnitoRome. Basil suffered some reverses, but gained the citadel

of Ibrahim through the cleverness and loyalty of a

native woman in that part of Armenia which was

occupied by the Moslem.) It is uncertain if the deed of

Curious delay gift or donation of Ani was given up by Basil II. or

in completing b Constantine IX. during his brief reign (1025-28) ;
the transfer; y . ? , , ^ • *• J

varying nor is the transaction entirely clear. Cynacus, chief

accounts. of the Armenian patriarchal hospital, was sent, at the
emperor's request, on a delicate mission ; and in his
hands was placed an important document which
transferred a large district to the direct rule of Rome.
This was to be delivered to the new King of Ani,
John Sembat ; was it to remind him of the pre-
carious tenure, or to surrender the deed ? Cyriac
(Kvpaicos) at any rate kept it, and appears to have
delivered it over again to Michael IV., and the mild
and conscientious prince waited till Sembat's demise
to enter upon a legitimate possession. John Sembat
of Ani, and his brother Ashot, king of Tachir, died
about the same time, previous to 1039, probably in
1038. An interregnum, or rather anarchy, prevailed
Anarchy and for two years. The nobles do not agree upon the
treason in choice of a successor ; for Sembat was childless, and
Gagic, his nephew, son of Ashot, was too young.
Thus the boy of fourteen years had to wait until a
loyal general put him in possession of his heritage
two years later. In 1039 the bailiff of the king
profited by political disorder to pillage the royal
treasure-house, to entrench himself in a strong
Michael IV., castle of his own, and to return in force to Ani, pre-
aresto6' Pare<^ to offer himself as a candidate for the vacant
enforce the throne ; his name was Sargis-Vestes l of Siounia (or
claim. Swania). Then at length Michael displays the letter,

conveying Ani as a gift to the empire ; and sends an

1 It is possible that, in the profuse distribution of Byzantine court-
titles, Vestes stands for /SArr???, a somewhat obscure dignity, perhaps
Master of the Imperial Wardrobe.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 431

army to enforce the claim, reaching, according to the Michael IV.,

historian, the incredible number of 100,000. Mean- 1040, pre-

. pares to
time the military resources of independent Armenia, enforce the

at least of Vasparacan, were under Varanes (or Bah- claim-
ram), a brother of that General Sapor who had met
and defied the first Turkman onslaught. It is not
easy to define his position exactly ; he was certainly
in some respects the peer of kings, and pursued
a free policy of his own choice, as a strong
nationalist. With an equally incredible force of Furious
50,000 he falls on the negligent Roman troops, who *%££££
had hitherto met with no resistance. The infuriated Nationalist.
natives slay the Romans without quarter, in spite of
the imploring appeals of their own more merciful
general. Sargis had played a double part : he had
betaken himself dutifully to the Roman camp, and,
now that fortune had declared against them, he re-
turned to the city and gave the best account he could
of his absence.

§ 7. But the chief Armenian throne was now open Bahram
to the adventurer. Under Michael V. (1041), David ]™
Lackland, a Bagratid " king " in Albania, descends Ani (1042}.
into Shirak (possibly at the instigation of Rome), to
seize the vacant crown. Here again Varanes inter-
posed, challenged his ambitious aim, and forced
him to retire. Sargis-Vestes had not given up his
pretensions, and Varanes guarded the rights of a
scion of the royal house against these claimants. At
length he succeeds in placing the youthful Gagic (or
Cakig) on the throne, aged sixteen, destined to be
the last independent sovereign. In this restoration
Varanes was warmly assisted by his own nephew,
Gregory jULayia-rpos, lord of Betchni, in Ararat (who
would seem to have received the title during a sojourn
at Constantinople, and to have there written works
in verse and prose in his native tongue ; also to
have converted a Moslem by the literary tour de force
of embracing in a thousand distichs the history of
the Old and New Testaments. He left behind him a

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Bahram
raises Gagic,
last King of
Ani (1042).

Straight-
forward
dealing of
the emperors.

son, who was destined to become Prince or Duke of
Antioch under the Romans). Gagic was a youth of
excellent qualities, and fought with courage and
success against the hordes of the Turkmans now
returning to the charge. In 1042 (the limit of our
present inquiries) they are found near Betchni, the
residence of Gregory ^ajLCTrpog ; Gagic secures the
victory by a clever ambuscade, and many are lured to
death and drowned. They return soon after to the
coveted soil of Vasparacan, and are confronted by
Khatchic-Khoul the Lion (an Arzrounian prince), in
the Canton of Thorounavan.

It may not be out of place to give another in-
stance of the good faith and feeling of the Byzantine
sovereign, at a time when the title seems to modern
ears to imply the hypocrite, the thief, and the assassin.
David, the son of Sennacherib, Arzrounian " king "
of Sebaste, died after ten years' reign. Here is an
excellent example of the official turning into the
hereditary, the transformation of a functionary hold-
ing a certain post at pleasure into a continuous feudal
family seized of an appanage on condition of a trifling
homage. Atom, his brother, succeeds, but is accused
at court of treasonable intentions by an Armenian
prince, jealous of their house. Michael IV., credulous
and alarmed, sent troops, and a summons to appear
before him. The royal brothers wisely decide to
obey. At the tomb of the great emperor Basil they
read out his deed of investiture with the sovereign
principality of Sebaste, and protest their innocence of
the charge. Michael at once believes them, embraces
them with tenderness and remorse, and imprisons
the calumniator. — The reign of the same prince was
also signalised by the amazing vicissitudes of the little
town and fortress of Bergri, on the borders of Lake
Aghthamar near Ardjich. The governor, Khtric, was
captured by the Roman governor in Vasparacan,
Nicholas Cabasilas, who seized the town. He again
recovers his liberty and his post, loses again to the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 433

Armenian lords Gardzi and Tadjat, wins it back,
celebrating his triumph with a horrible bath of gore,
and yields at last to the empire.

Leaving then independent Armenia in the hands Relations of

of a generous and able prince, and united in loyalty ^ Armenian

i ui- L kingdom to
by a common danger, we may perhaps establish the empire

the following conclusions. The native dynasty had (°- 1042).
emerged again out of trouble and conflict, and thanks
to the services of Sapor, of Bahram, of Vasak, and of
Gregory, had reasserted its rights. The claims of Rome,
founded on an authentic document, had been over-
looked, tacitly surrendered, or mildly enforced. The
Turkish onset had largely contributed to the success
of the loyalist or nationalist party ; Roman governors
and native princes lived side by side in suspicious
amity, in open hostility, and occasional alliance.
One great armament had been launched in vain
against Armenian autonomy ; and time was pre-
paring a last and final conflict in which the lesser
power would vanish like Poland in thraldom to
the empire, itself already approaching the term of
its real sovereignty in Asia. We reserve for
notice, under the important reign of Constantine X.,
the final conclusion ; following, as it does, the
familiar lines of those historical events, by which
the independence of smaller states is wont to be
extinguished.

§ 8. There remains only to notice briefly some Close
disconnected details in the general relations of Rome
and Armenia, which serve to illustrate the time empire under
between Basil II. and the tenth Constantine.
Romanus III. (of the notable family of Argyrus)
was strongly Armenian in his sympathies ; he
married two nieces and perhaps a daughter to
their princes. It may be suspected that his death
arrested the development of friendly relations and
a wise policy of conciliation. I do not attach
weight to the supposed insult imposed on the
Armenian reinforcement at the Black Mount, when

VOL. II. 2 E

434 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. B

Close during his ill-starred expedition of 1030, he enrolled

Tb^ia^wUh^ them among his regular troops. The actual loss
empire under of the day was retrieved by Maniaces (himself
RomanusIII. of Eastern descent) ; though nothing could ever
obliterate the personal disgrace and shame of the
emperor, who, perhaps for a century, was the first
to suffer defeat in the open field. Magniac was
given command of the riparian cities and forts
along the Euphrates, with a chief residence at
Samosata and a roving commission. He seized
Edessa, then occupied by a lieutenant of the emir
of Miafarekin, and sent home an annual tribute of
50 Ibs. of gold from the single city. He was soon
transferred to the control of Roman Vasparacan,
while Leo Lependrenus succeeded him in the Meso-
potamian viceroyalty. The brother of Michael IV.,
the eunuch Constantine, was the next governor of
Edessa, or at least appears in its defence, with the
title of Domestic of the eastern troops. The tech-
nical successor to Lependrenus was an undoubted
Armenian, born, it was said, of an Iberian mother,
Varazvatch. — It would appear that the death of
Romanus III. (1034) stirred the ill-feeling and sus-
picion of these Iberians. Romanus and Zoe had
married a niece, daughter of Basil Argyrus, to
Bagrat, son of George, king of Iberia and Abasgia ;
and it is said that Bagrat broke a long peace with
the empire to avenge the murder of Romanus. This
would seem to be (like the scandalous yet circum-
stantial story itself) very problematic : in 1036, the
same monarch sent a reinforcement of 4000 men
to David Lackland against the emir of Dovin.
The tendency to appoint natives to the imperial
Armenian commands in the East is evinced by the name
r^em^r Khatchic> a native governor under the empire for
Principality Roman Vasparacan, a post in which the official
of Tarsus. ancj the feudal element must have been very evenly
balanced. We read of two sons, Hassan and
Zinziluc, being despatched to offer gifts and homage

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (940-1040) 435

to the emperor Michael IV. During their absence Armenian

the Turks kill father and brother, and they return dovernors for

the empire :
with 5000 Romans to take vengeance. Quite in the Principality

spirit of mediaeval chivalry, the murderers are of Tarsus.
challenged to single combat, and the right prevails
in the province of Her. But the petty Armenian
principalities or governorships have become in-
creasingly insecure ; the tide of Roman influence
is fast ebbing in the east, or rather the Armenian
nationality is being driven westwards. On Hassan's
death, the emperor gave his son, Abel-Kharp, the
principality of Tarsus, in Cilicia, with its depend-
encies, and thus paved the way for that romantic
sequel to the Armenian monarchy in the country
of St. Paul. Once more, under Romanus III. (1034),
Alda, widow of George of Abasgia, had handed over
a strong fortress to Rome, Anaquoph ; and Demetrius,
brother of the Bagrat above, who married the
emperor's niece Helena, received the distinction of
magister militum. Thus hither and thither flowed the
stream of Romanising sympathy among the Armenians
at this time.

KINGS OF IBERIA (or Georgia or Karthli} of the Bagratid
line, established as fifth dynasty since 575 by Gouaram,
curopalat: —

Adranasar (Aternerseh) II., 890. (Bagratid king of
Georgia ; a grandson of Ashot I., Bagratid king
of Armenia; crowned by Sembat I.)

David II., son.

Gourgenes I., nephew of David.

Bagrat II., son of Gourgenes, the Fool.

Gourgenes II., son of Gourgenes, 998.

Bagrat III., son of Gourgenes, 1008.

Georgi I., son of Bagrat III., 1015.

Bagrat IV., son of George, who married niece of
Romanus III., whose brother Demetrius received
title magister militum, whose mother Alda received
Roman garrison in Anaquoph. There follow :
Georgi II., 1072 ; David III., 1089 ; Demetrius I.,
1125.

The new line of Abasgian kings provides several members of

436 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIV. B

the Iberian Bagratids, though sovereigns are not invariably chosen
from that family: in 915, there is a Gourgenes, grand prince of the
Abasgians, nephew of David 1 1. (above) ; his son Bagrat served, as it
were, an apprenticeship in Abasgia for the more important crown of
Iberia, which he obtained in 958, at the close of Constantine VI I. 's
reign. At that time Abasgia served, like Naples or Tuscany, as a
stepping-stone to a higher dignity. But the barbarous names
of Thothos and Ber (927 and 945) prove that the Abasgian chief-
tains were not always chosen of this stock.

KINGS OF ARMENIA (of the Bagratid line) :—

Ashot (son of Vasak), created ruler of Armenia by

Merwan II., last Ommiad Caliph, 748.
Sempad, 758.
Ashot, 781.

Sembat, Confessor, 820.

Ashot I. the Great (first independent ruler), 856.
Sembat I., Martyr, 890.
Ashot II. (iron-arm}, 914.

(An Ashot not counted, nominee of Arabs,:92i.)
Apas, 928.

Ashot III., the Pitiful, 952.
Sembat II., the Powerful, 977.
Gagic I. (*king of kings), 989.
John Sembat III., 1020-1042.
Gagic II., 1042 (tio8o).

DIVISION C

ANNEXATION, RIVALRY, AND ALLIANCE
WITHOUT (1040-1120)

VIII

ARMENIA AND THE EMPIRE FROM CONSTANTINE X.
TO THE ABDICATION OF MICHAEL VI. (1040-1057).

§ 1. THE reign of Monomachus is perhaps the zenith Voluntary
of Byzantine influence and extension, and the first c
moment of rapid reaction and decline. The chief (c. 1045).
event in the Eastern world was the extinction of the
Bagratid kingdom in Greater Armenia, and the
annexation of a vast territory, which stretched the
realm from the Danube (or even the Straits of
Messina) to the Caspian Sea. In 1045, Michael
Jasitas, Roman governor in Iberia, has small success
against the recalcitrant Gagic, nephew of the deceased
monarch ; and Constantine X. does not scruple to
request the aid of Aboulsewar, Arab emir of Dovin,
against a Christian sovereign. The emir bargained
to retain his conquests. Gagic was alarmed at this
unholy alliance ; and Sargis-Vestes, working on his
fears, induced him to make peace with the mighty
yet placable rulers, whose arms and allies were
ubiquitous. At last the distressed king decides
to repair to the well-known asylum ; he binds his
nobles of the Romanising party by terrible oaths
not to surrender the city of Ani in his absence,
and exacts from the emperor full and express safe-
conduct and immunity. The treacherous faction at
once despatched the keys of citadel and palace to

437

438 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Voluntary
cession of
King of Ani
(c. 1045).

Exploits of
Catacalon,
Roman
governor,
against emir
of Dovin.

Constantine ; and to his credit he refused to accept
the advantage. Meantime a notable Armenian peer
set the example of capitulation ; Gregory jULayio-Tpos,
friend of the aged Basil II., versifier and paraphrast
of Scripture, gave up his possessions in Ararat in
exchange for land in Mesopotamia, and the coveted
title of Duke (which now became the chief honour
bestowed by the empire on its foreign adherents).
Gagic hesitated no longer ; and with the entrance
of Jasitas into Ani the Bagratid kingdom comes
to an end, leaving only the prince of Kars in
complete but precarious autonomy, under the
hereditary sway of the son of Abbas. Gagic is
granted the now archaic title of magister militum,
with a large fief in Cappadocia. The first dependent
governor of Ani was Catacalon Catacecaumenus,
the burnt (cf. Fabius Ambustus), a general of the
Armenian military caste, who will bulk largely on
the scene in the next twenty-five years. Catacalon
at once suspected the patriarch Peter and his
nephew Khatchic of very doubtful attachment to
the new suzerain ; he seizes them both. Con-
stantine X., entirely faithful to the gracious and
trusting policy of the later emperors towards alien
princes and possible allies, received Peter at court,
and (while compelled to acknowledge the fairness
of his lieutenant's suspicions) gave him the high
dignity of Syncellus tot his own " Chalcedonian "
patriarch. He orders the reinstatement of Khatchic
in the see of Ani, and even dismisses Peter after
three years from his honourable detention, at the
request and with the personal surety of Gagic the
ex-king, and the two princes or " kings " of Sebaste ;
thither the patriarch retired, to die in 1060.— The
two following years (1046) witnessed more desultory
conflicts in the farther East. Aboulsewar, the
emir of Dovin, was discontented with the good
faith of the "Greeks," and loudly bewailed the
violation of the compact by which he was to

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 439

retain whatever he won from Gagic. It is customary Exploits of
to believe implicitly such charges in the case of the ^^f™'
decadent Byzantine monarchy, the " Lower " empire ; governor,

in this case, we will only remark that Gagic had °y>™*t emir

. f . . 1t ofDovin.

already detached the emir from his imperial ally

and thus rendered the treaty void ; and again, he
had ceded his kingdom of his own free-will.
Nicolas Cabasilas,1 in command of the troops,
despatched a large force, under Jasitas and an
Alanian vassal of his own, which is badly defeated
under the walls of Dovin. The two generals are
at once recalled, and Catacalon transferred from
Iberia ; while, with the true Byzantine caution so
often fatal to rapid and concerted action, the con-
trol of the army was entrusted to a Saracen eunuch,
Constantine, in whose loyalty the emperor had every
reason to confide ; we are reminded of the influence
of Samonas under Leo VI. But this strangely
assorted pair of yoke-fellows, the bluff general
and the emasculated renegade from Islam, acted
throughout in perfect agreement. They close in
on the emir's capital, carefully occupying all places
of supply and commissariat. (The Armenian writers
give Catacalon the name Telarkh or Teliarkh : is
it possible that under this lurks concealed, the
ironical title reXeios apxctv, or TeXeiapxys ?) Aboul-
sewar retaliated (as was usual in these border forays)
by carrying desolation up to the walls of the new
Roman centre, Ani. He destroyed the churches,
martyring the faithful priests and bishops ; and
amongst the number we find the name of Vahram,
the aged Arsacid general and patriot, who had com-

1 We may perhaps suspect that the name Basil is not strictly of
Greek origin, either at this time or earlier, when it is illustrated by the
great Christian dogmatist. The Armenian form might be Vasel or Bar-
shegh ; the Greeks would force its Hellenic equivalent into some kind of
intelligible form. In this spirit and intention, they make Topyivbys (alert
mind) of Gourgenes, Su/tjScfo-tos of Sembat, U.ayKpdTios of Bagrat. In the
West they attempted a derivation of Thiudat and Thiuds-reich, by words
which reminded the hearer or reader of the gift of God (0ed?, d&pov).

440 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

pleted his eightieth year. He still lives as a canonised
saint in the grateful memories of his scattered
countrymen.

TheSeljuk §2. The year 1048 saw the beginning of the
advance: its Seljukian wars, which destroyed in a few years the
Sinworfd^e caliphate and the traditional form and territory of
history. the Roman Empire, extended a Turkish conquest
from the neighbourhood of Byzantium to Cashgar,
vanished before the still more terrible onslaught of
the Mongols, and gave birth in dying to the Otto-
man supremacy. The founder of the line was a
brave captain in Turkestan, very probably of
Christian belief, who, in the disturbed and incoherent
realm which we call the caliphate, retired affronted
from a petty court, set up an independent authority,
and died full of years and booty as a brigand chief
or mercenary captain in Bokharia at the age of
eighty. It is fitting to compare for a moment the
fortunes of Rome and Islam. Both systems were
anti-national, impersonal, democratic (or rather
equalitarian), and therefore despotic. There were no
gradations of authority, no distinct and balancing
centres of influence ; the Caliph and Caesar were all
or nothing ; the popular delegation of power was
plenary and (at first) irrevocable. Rome leant suc-
cessfully on the nations who entered her pale ; the
provinces were summoned one by one to send their
sons to the capital and revive its dwindling vigour.
As in Rome, Spaniards and Africans, Syrians and
Dacians had played their part in sustaining the empire
which recognised no distinction of race, so in Islam
we can trace the successive stages by which the real
power passes from Arabia to Syria, Persia, and
Khorasan ; how the caliphs, recruiting their armies
farther and farther from the seat of government and
the home-country, became the victims and the slaves
of the Turkish mercenaries whom they had invoked
against their own subjects. In the widespread
theocracy of Islam any believer might become, not

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 441

indeed Caesar — the prophet's kin were sacred — but The Seljuk

his tyrant or his assassin. The difference between ^van/e: its

. significance

the two parallel systems may be seen in the greater in world-
efficiency of the successors of Constantine, who are
continually awoken from the slumbers of the puppet
to become the active controllers, first ministers, and
generals of the great commonwealth. Elsewhere, the
members of a privileged house of sacred and im-
memorial descent sank into nonentities ; but at Old
and New Rome there are no Mikados, rot's faineants,
or Abbassid caliphs. By the middle of the eleventh
century, the original force of Islam had been ex-
hausted ; its noonday was long past. The three great
movements which created our modern world were
just happening : the Norman conquests of England
and of Southern Italy, — the arrival of the Seljukids
as militant exponents of the principles of Islam. It
is at this time that the kingdoms of the ancient and
the modern world fall into that shape and system
which has lasted until the present day. For the
Seljukids are the ancestors and pioneers of the
Ottoman Turks.

§ 3. The first embroilment of these redoubtable First pillage
foes with the imperial forces occurred in 1048, for
a miserably inadequate cause. Stephen, governor
of Vasparacan and son of Constantine Lichudes, a
favourite minister of Constantine X., refused leave,
like Edom of old, to Cutulmish, Togrul's cousin, to
pass through while retiring before the Arabs of
Diarbekir. The arrogant governor is defeated,
captured, and sold as a slave ; but the glowing
reports of Cutulmish on the fertile province influence
the greed of the Sultan (as we may now call the
representative of the imprisoned caliph, in distinc-
tion from the official emirs of the Arabian system).
Twenty thousand men under Assan are sent to
reduce and ravage Vasparacan ; for if Harun himself
had no higher ambition than a successful slave-raid,
it was not to be expected that these gross recruits

442 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

First pillage

ofVas-

paracan.

Division in
the Roman
councils ;
they wait for
Liparit.

(Feudal
character of
Liparit.)

to Islam, perhaps Christian renegades, had any idea
of political consolidation. The new governor was
Aaron, son of Ladislas, Bulgarian king, and brother
of Prusianus (the duellist) ; so strangely on the out-
skirts of her empire did Rome bring together the
different nations, tongues, and creeds of the world.
He sent to Catacalon for aid, who had during the
rebellion of Tornicius been summoned to the defence
of the emperor against the usurper, and afterwards
transferred to his old post as governor of the Iberian
frontier of Armenia. Local report assigns a credit-
able victory and successful ruse to Catacalon :
the camp was deserted, and while it is rifled by the
enemy the ambush falls on them, drowning them
in the river Strauga (?) It must, however, be re-
marked that the incident and the plan bear a
suspicious resemblance to the tactics of king Gagic ;
and that while the Byzantines know of one incursion
of the Seljuks, the Armenians, with better chances of
accurate knowledge, speak of three. But the further
success of the Roman arms and perhaps a long re-
prieve for the Asiatic provinces of the empires, were
hindered by the Byzantine safeguards of a divided
military command, by a college of equal generals.
Their unanimous voice was requisite for any joint
action, and a single veto (as in a Polish Diet) could
indefinitely postpone action at a crisis. Aaron the
Bulgar wished to act on the defensive and await
further imperial commands, when Togrul's brother,
Ibrahim Inal, advanced against them with an enor-
mous host of 100,000. Catacalon, merely a warrior
and not a courtier, bluntly declared for an immediate
attack. The emperor sent in reply a cautious
direction to wait for the further reinforcements of the
Iberian Liparit. — This ally or vassal or subject of
Rome (we are approaching the feudal uncertainty
of legal status) is an excellent type of a common
class in these latter days of the Eastern empire. A
trained warrior, and descending from a military

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 443

family, he stands, like Vasak or Bahram, a powerful (Feudal
general by the side of the throne, or on its steps, and
often of more consequence than its occupant. Twenty-
six years before (1022), his grandfather had died
fighting against the empire with the Abasgians ; and
under Bagrat, king of Northern Iberia, he was estab-
lished there and enjoyed great influence. But the
king insulted his wife, and was expelled by an
exasperated husband. Seizing the throne like the
Persian general Bahram of old (in a rare interruption
of a strictly hereditary line), he sought to establish
himself by the friendship of Rome. Constantine X.
willingly accepted his proposal, and recognised the
successful pretender ; but Bagrat escapes from his
exile, passes to Trebizond, and secures the empe-
ror's permission to visit Constantinople. There the
legitimate sovereign complained of the countenance
given to a rebel and usurper. And on this occasion,
if on no other, the emperor acted a truly imperial
part, as judicious arbiter of the quarrels of lesser
men, such as Dante vainly portrayed to the turbulent
West as the ideal of an earthly monarch. He
mollified the two rivals, and prevailed with won-
derful tact on Liparit to rest content with the life-
enjoyment of the province of Meschia, acknowledging
Bagrat as his sovereign.

§ 4. While the generals each in good faith proffered Defeat of
and upheld their different views, the forces of Liparit ^rtfatior
were slowly assembling and descending southwards, for peace
and Ibrahim, reaping a full advantage from the re- With Rome-
spite, attacked Arz-Roum (near the ancient Theodosio-
polis), and burns and sacks an opulent town, where
the number of victims of fire and sword was said to
reach 140,000. Still Aaron believed that nothing
could dispense from the letter of the imperial in-
structions ; and his veto paralysed the action of the
Roman forces while Catacalon chafed at the delay.
But the arrival of Liparit only brought a fresh
obstacle. He came with 26,000 Georgians and

444 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Defeat of
Liparit;
negotiations
for peace
with Rome.

The

Patzinaks
create a
diversion in
Europe ;
eastern
armies
weakened.

Armenians and 700 of his own immediate retainers
and vassals ; but he refused to fight on a Saturday.
When the engagement does in the end take place,
both Roman generals accounted for the detachment
that confronted them, but Liparit was defeated and
taken captive. The Sultan displayed an even greater
generosity towards his fallen foe than Alp Arslan
to Romanus Diogenes. He dismissed Liparit without
ransom ; and gave to the released prisoner for his
own use the sum which the emperor had sent.
Events seemed to point to a truce in the hostilities
between the two powers ; but the Sheriff sent to the
Roman capital to discuss the terms of peace, made
extravagant demands, required tribute from the
empire (which was as yet insensible of its secret
decay), and broke off negotiations on refusal. In
consequence, Togrul resumed the war next year (1049)
by an attack on Manzikert, some twenty years before
the famous and fatal battle. (Earlier in the year he
had appeared before Comium in Iberia, but was
deterred by the news of a great Roman force which
Constantine X. had collected. The defection of the
emperor's Patzinak allies or recruits altered the
whole complexion of affairs. Like the Slavonian
mercenaries of Justinian II. they abandoned their
forts with one consent, refused to go on a distant
expedition to the rocks of Iberia, and swam the
Bosphorus on their horses beneath the eyes of an
amazed and perhaps affrighted capital.) The
patrician Basil forces Togrul to retreat ; and the
great army collected at Cappadocian Caesarea was
free to turn its attention to Aboulsewar. The
Roman arms and designs were crowned with com-
plete success. The emir's territory was ravaged,
the old treaty renewed, and a hostage was offered and
accepted, in the person of his nephew Artasyras.
But this concentration of troops on the Eastern
frontier had left the capital exposed. The days of
the great Justinian were recalled when, victor from

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 445

Gades and the Straits of Hercules to Colchis and The

the Euphrates, he trembled in the palace before a

. , , r, . Jilt- XT vli .LI. create a

raid of disorderly barbarians. Neither then nor diversion in

now could the empire support more than one Europe;
fully-equipped host ; Belisarius had to leave his task ^^
in Persia to fly to Italy. In recent times a Russian weakened.
scare had brought up Curcuas with all his men from
their proper post; and we shall soon see how the
revolt of Tornicius disorganised the military defences strange trio
by a contemptible domestic sedition. The Roman of generals
armies had followed strange leaders of every nation patzinaks
under heaven ; but never perhaps a combination so (1050).
curious. At the head was a retired priest, Nice-
phorus, who had abandoned his orders to follow
active military service ; a Western bishop would have
united the two professions of arms and prayer.
Catacalon, not without a smile or a murmur,
assumed a subaltern post ; and Hervey the Norman
(<ppayyo7rov\o$) occupied a powerful but indeter-
minate position as ally or condottiere : here first we
meet with a notable name among the foreigners,
Russians, Germans, and English, who since the days
of Basil and Constantine had formed no mean re-
inforcement to the decaying (or suspected) native
armies. Successive defeats had broken the spirit
of the soldiers. Nicephorus was routed ; Catacalon
was taken, still breathing, among the heaps of slain ;
like Liparit, he was tended by the foe, restored to
health, and finally released, to act once more as the
guardian of the empire, the veteran hero and spokes-
man of the military party, and the " king-maker " in
the revolution of 1057. The Patzinaks were a third
time victorious over the cowed and demoralised
forces (1050); but by one of the rapid turns from
peril to security, so familiar in Byzantine history,
they were repressed and rendered harmless by the
end of the next year.

§ 5. Meantime, the court and advisers of the
benevolent emperor were agitated by perpetual sus-

446 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

The courtiers picion of Armenian loyalty. Once more a charge was
Armenian preferred (1051) against the vassal-princes, who lived
Princes of so strangely in the midst of the uniform officialism of
Rome, on the border-line between subject and ally.
The province of Baghin, in Fourth Armenia, had long
enjoyed peace under a college of amiable brethren
residing at Arkni, Abel Harpic (or Aboul-Kharp),
David, Leo, and Constantine. The emperor listened
to their accusers, and sent Peros with a force to
investigate. He summons all the lords to attend a
durbar and publicly renew their profession of loyalty.
Intending to abstain they were betrayed ; and found it
prudent to present themselves and tender allegiance.
Of the guilty designs of the eldest brother Peros was
reluctantly convinced ; with unusual and almost
unique severity in this age of tenderness to traitors
and renegades, he set a price upon his head ; but
wept at the spectacle of accomplished justice. The
remaining three princes he brought home with him,
Curious plot to be banished into an island in the ensuing year

to annihilate /Ioc2), not because their innocence was again doubt-

Armenian v o /'

'Huguenots.' ful, but by the kindness of the emperor. Our

authorities at this juncture tell us that "a decision
was taken at court to annihilate the entire Armenian
race," and we are left in darkness as to the motive
and scope of this curious proposal, which has found
in our own times a parallel in the policy of Abdul
Hamid II. The emperor (always the most clement
man within his own dominions) saved them from the
tempest ; there was no Armenian Bartholomew, no
Sicilian Vespers ; and the gracious and capable
sovereign, Theodora, sent them back to their own
land, conferring the responsible control of their pro-
vince to Melusianus. — But it is abundantly clear that
Normans the court-party and civil ministers entertained a pro-
*East owing to f ound distrust of the Armenian warrior-class. From
distrust. certain vague intimations we might almost surmise
that the great army of the East was no more. In
1052, we find Franks and Varangians dispersed in

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 447

various posts of Iberia and Chaldia, under Michael Normans

the Acolyth. He was successful in inducing Togrul to p°si(:d in.

. , , J , . s & r . . East owing to

desist from his savage- reprisals for the escape of his distrust.

rebel brother Cutulmish. But in 1053, the Sultan Attach of
again returns to Lake Van, round which in earliest T°9rul
and latest time alike clustered the homes of the true renewed
Armenian race. He captured Bergri and begins the (1058) but
second siege of Manzikert, still ruled by Basil the baffled'
patrician (scion of a noble family of Talk by a
Georgian mother), a clear proof that the wisdom and
justice of the emperor had arrested the fatal policy of
eliminating the Armenian element from the service
of Rome. The Turks had the usual successes of a
ferocious and undisciplined horde. The districts of
Ararat, Vanand, Khorsene, Chaldia, and Tai'k were
ruthlessly ravaged. Thatoul, the general of Abbas,
king of Kars, was put to death in captivity for
having killed in battle a Seljuk prince. But the Sultan
retired baffled from the walls and bastions of the
citadel ; an Armenian and a nameless but in-
genious Frank diverted the force of his batteries and
set fire to the engines which, stolen from the Romans,
they employed with clumsy art against their inven-
tors. After receiving in his camp from a catapult
the gory head of a general who had counselled per-
sistence in the siege, Togrul hesitated no longer.
He strikes his camp and plunders the vulnerable
portion of Arzke, a town in the Pesnounian district,
and on the borders of Van. The not inglorious
reign of Constantine X. was wearing to its close ;
two acts of imperial generosity must be recorded ;
Basil, for his meritorious defence, was created Duke Catacalon,
(or Prince ?) of Edessa, and Catacalon, returning safe ^tioch
and whole from the kindly Patzinaks, received the still
prouder title, Duke of Antioch, which had for a hundred

years shed added lustre on the highest official rank.
J e a r\ • i_ • Fresh Seljuk

§6. During the short reign of Theodora (1054- attack;

1056) decisive and significant movements took treason of the
place in the East. On the one hand, the Seljuks

448 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

Fresh Seljuk
attack;
treason of the
son of
Liparit.

Pillage of
Chaldia.

Emir of
Akhlat
extinguishes
revolt of
Hervey the
Norman.

gathered courage, assaulted Ani (1055) by the united
armies of Togrul and Aboulsewar, once more hostile
to the empire ; ravaging the district of Basen,
massacring the whole populace of Ocom to the
number of 30,000, scared or stupefied by the fires
kindled by the savage foe. (Another band of muti-
neers, despising the commands of the Sultan but
recognising the same prey, killed a Roman com-
mandant Theodore, in the province of Taron.) On
the other hand, we have a signal instance of that
restless feudal spirit which excited the distrust of the
ministers in the capital against the Armenian race,
whether as vassal-princes or as troops enrolled in
the imperial service. Ivan (or Ivane), the son of
Liparit, the superstitious general who had failed
against the Turk in 1048, had been gratified by the
investiture of the provinces of Hacht£an and Archa-
mouni : he had found this substantial recom-
pense for the very doubtful services of his family
inadequate to his own deserts. He coveted the
addition of the province of Carin ; and to secure his
purpose, allied with the Turks. Terrified at his
crime, he guides them into Chaldia, away from his
own territory ; and they are glutted with the rich
booty of a defenceless country. This was the signal
for a more determined and ferocious onslaught.
Anarchy broke loose in the Asiatic provinces. A
band seizes Erez, and massacres all its people.

Michael VI.'s reign was marked by the revolt of
Hervey, an excellent instance of the dangers of mer-
cenary aid, and the aversion of strong and youthful
individuality to serve an impersonal cause. Neither
Norman nor Armenian (amid many signal points of
unlikeness) could appreciate a state, a common-
wealth, or public welfare. All life was for them
comprised in personal honour, in detached acts
of prowess, and in allegiance to a personal chief.
Hervey at least would have been contented if his
vanity had been flattered by the title magister militum,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1040-1057) 449

which he asked as the price of his services. The Emir of

boon was refused with some scorn ; and Alaric had A^lat .

. extinguishes

sacked Rome to avenge a similar slight. Hervey revolt of

was no historian, but the same Teutonic spirit, Hervey the
covetous of honour and careless of gain, worked in
him as in his Gothic cousin six and a half centuries
before. He dissembles his resentment and asks a
furlough. He passes into Armenia, where he had
an estate or a citadel ; and communicates his discon-
tent to the other Franks, who had been established
there in military colonies to counteract the Armenian
influence. The empire had reason to repent of its
decision ; the Norman mercenaries were less trust-
worthy and more dangerous than the Armenian
natives. Like Russell some years later in the empire,
like the Seljuks themselves in their early days, he
became a brigand-chief, a robber-baron of the
Western type, a captain of raceless and creedless
condottieri. In Vasparacan, he does not scruple to
court the alliance of Samukh, Togrul's general, and
with his aid to harass the lands of the empire. But
the infidel put small faith in these blonde barbarians ;
and Michael VI. owed to the prudence and friendli-
ness of the Emir of Akhlat the easy extinction of
the mutiny. Apolasar posed as the host and ally
of Hervey's company, but it was against the wish of
their leader that the Franks entered the city. They
were all assassinated ; and Hervey himself thrown
into chains. The emir wrote to Michael VI. with
almost dutiful glee at the deserved fate of the rebel ;
and the emperor, terrified at the renown of any
successful general in his employ, must have been
profoundly thankful that he was not required to pro-
vide the military class with a chance of distinction. But
the emperor could not avert his fate. He was destined
to fall before some member of the warrior-class, and it
was the veteran general, Catacalon Catacecaumenus,
who became the arbiter of the due moment of the
insurrection and the qualifications of the new emperor.
VOL. II. 2 F

450 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

ARMENIA AND WESTERN ASIA FROM ISAAC I. TO
THE RETIREMENT OF NICEPHORUS III. (1057-1081)

Catacalon § 1. The forces of the East had recovered their

Armenian m&UGnce> their numbers, and their prestige ; or at
military least the great magnates knew where their disbanded
faction again soldiers were chafing in enforced inaction. The
troops, gathered at Castamouni in Paphlagonia, joy-
fully proclaimed Isaac Comnenus, to whom the choice
of Catacalon had pointed, on June 8, 1057. From
this moment the conflict between the Pacifists and
the military caste is continual and embittered, and
ceases not until the accession of the second Com-
nenus, twenty-four years later, puts an end for ever to
the civil tradition of Rome. Like any feudal prince
of the West, summoned by his peers to a precarious
throne, Isaac is well aware of the doubtful benefit
of a military backing. The constitution had not yet
lost its archaic and yet venerable lineaments ; the
wearer of the purple was not yet a pure military
dictator, nor a feudal prince among his clansmen or
his serfs. Michael VI. had dismissed with irony and
studied insult the generals who had assembled to pay
their Easter homage and receive the usual gifts and
honours. Isaac was not so imprudent ; but he took
occasion to send his late allies far from the capital
to reside on their own estates. Catacalon became
Curopalat, but the office was perhaps, for the first time,
divided between a brother, John Comnenus, and a
subject. Henceforth, the emperor relies only on his
kinsmen ; a Comnenus is the power behind the throne
even during the interval between the abdication of
Isaac and the emergence of Alexius ; and the nomina-
tion of a new emperor is the triumph of a feudal clan.
Armenian I have dwelt thus on the political aspect of the

w^/toice on revolution of 1057, because it bears out the influence
ascribed to the new feudal forces at work throughout

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 451

the empire, and especially in the East. Armenia had Armenian
no doubt preserved her independence by means, i]j£™nce °n
rather than in spite, of her feudal turbulence. But
she had done more ; she had permeated the social-
istic system and government of Rome with the spirit
of a bellicose hierarchy : and the influence which
destroyed the reality of the empire, while it kept alive
its phantom for 500 years, came from the East and
not from the West. — For our present purpose, we Desultory

must now resume our inquiry into the sequel of the *£*$*& .

. . Seljuks with

Turkish inroads and the Roman civil war. Blour, varying

in Carin (which Ivan had coveted), submitted to success
terrible cruelties ; Khorzene and Andzitene are ran- *
sacked ; and the attention of the warrior-class was
distracted from the needs of the State to their own
real or imagined grievances (1057). ^n IO5^» a
Turkish force came against Melitene and sacked and
burnt according to their custom ; but with a curious
nemesis, the retreating raiders are snow-bound among
the gorges of the Taurus for five months, while the
scanty but resolute defenders hold the passes. The
death of their general and the news of a Roman
reinforcement threw the Turks into confusion near
the village of Mormran ; and, though during their
retreat through Taron they burn Elnout's cathedral
and belfry (built by Gregory jmayio-Tpos), Thornic the
Mamigonian assembles the levies of Sassoun against
them, rescues their prisoners, and sends them back
in safety to Melitene. So far at least the Turkish
war is a mere record of havoc, slaughter, and burn-
ing ; broken only by some instance of patriotic
daring. There is no steady policy, no advance to
any certain goal. The Seljuks harry and destroy but
they do not annex, and seem at the very moment of
signal triumph to repent suddenly of their aggression.

§ 2. The estrangement of Armenia was assisted Religious and
by theological hate. Constantine XI. Ducas had^^^T
succeeded, and he summoned the Ani patriarch Armenia and
Khatchic (nephew of Peter) to appear in the capital the emPire

452 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV.

Armenian
alliance
with infidel
and Seljuk
advance.

Religious and (1059); he was retained in polite captivity for three
Mntionwf' years> importuned to accept the creed and rites of the
Armenia and Greek Church, and (if an odd report be worthy of
the empire, credit) to supply the emperor with an annual tribute
or subsidy. Application is made also to Atom and
Abousahl, princes or " kings" of Sebaste (Sivas), and
to Gagic, the king of Kars. But the suggested sub-
mission was intensely distasteful to the Armenian
nation ; nor did the behaviour of the " Greeks " serve
to mollify these prejudices. Insults were meted
out to the Armenians, on account of their religion ;
George coming from Ani to Antioch suffers the
crowning and unpardonable indignity of a pulled
beard. In revenge he asks aid of the Turks, and
plunders twelve adjacent villages belonging to the
empire ; no doubt frightened, like the rest of his
countrymen, at the success of his unnatural venge-
ance. Yet Constantine XI. himself trusted Armenian
loyalty and valour ; he appointed Khatchatour, a
native of Ani, whom Zonaras calls XaraToi^ofos-, Duke
of Antioch in 1060. But nothing could heal the
breach between the two nations ; jealousy impeded
the successes of the camp as well as the harmony
of a common worship. When (also in 1060) the
duke levied his men and marched out to meet Slar-
Khorasan (a title, not a name, "General of Khorasan"),
a Greek, envious of Armenian success, sounded a
trumpet in the dead of night, and thus informed the
Turks, encamped near Nchenic, of the approach of
foes : the emperor punished the culprit with the
extreme penalty. If the duke by this expedition
saved Edessa, he did not escape calumny ; whisperers
were always ready to insinuate suspicions of
Armenian intrigues. He is relieved of the high office
and replaced by Vasak, son of Gregory jULayicrrpos,
the pious poetaster : the emperor afterwards (with
the keen desire to be just, which we have learnt to
expect in Byzantine sovereigns) compensated him
with the command of the fort Andrioun. At a second

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 453

siege of Edessa, bad feeling again broke out : 4000 Armenian
Greeks leave the city and encamp beyond the river ^A^efe/
in comparative safety and complete uselessness ; only and Seljuk
a few Armenians, performing prodigies of valour, advance.
kept the bridge, and a Frank died bravely in the
defence. Togrul follows this up by an order to Fall of the

three generals, including Samukh, to attack Sebaste. Principalities
A, , ,. ' ... , . , ,, ofSivasand

Atom, helpless and dismayed, retired with his brother Arkni.

to an impregnable fortress, Khavatanek, and wit-
nesses or hears of the burning of his capital, the
murder of his subjects. After eight days' wanton
havoc and destruction, the Turks leave behind them
a mere scene of ruin, and Atom, like all Armenian
princes in distress, seeks the asylum of the Roman
court. This blow carried the horrors into a part
of the empire which had long enjoyed peace. In
1 06 1, another trio of captains, including the nameless
" General of Khorasan," were ordered to Baghin,
where Arkni, the chief town, falls before their fury,
only intermitted for a brief space out of respect for
religion during a service in church. The " Prankish
colt " and the Duke of Edessa were sent against
them too late to save the town.

§ 3. Alp Arslan succeeded Togrul, or Tay*ypo\tTi£, Serious

in 1062, being the brother or the nephew (Abul- aggressive

P 5*. . . policy of new

pharagms) of his predecessor. Next year he invades

and reduces Albania, forces David Lackland to give
his daughter in marriage ; and takes the province
of Gougarkh and Dchavakh (dependent on Iberia),
together with the town of Akhal-Kalaki, "the new
city." With Arslan, the Seljukian sovereign ceases
to be a captain of brigands and raiders, and assumes
the generous air and serious policy of a more civi-
lised ruler. In 1064 he attacks the favourite and
coveted citadel of Ani (with its lofty ramparts of
Sembat II., and its circumfluent river, the Ak-
hourian). This town had been in Roman hands Capture and
since 1045 ; but was still entrusted to the care of *%%*^
native Armenians as lieutenants and officers of the capital, Ani.

454 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Capture and
sack of old
Armenian
capital, Ani.

Secret cession
of last
independent
state to Rome.

Further
range of
Seljuks
unhindered.

empire. Bagrat was in chief command as duke ;
and Gregory, a Georgian, held a subordinate post.
Here again the Sultan was disappointed, and pre-
paring to retire, was unhappily brought back by
the news that the inhabitants were leaving the city,
in the very moment when their safety was assured,
the host of fugitives amounting to 50,000. Arslan
returns and sacks (June 6, 1064). Part of the
citizens were sent home as slaves, part set to rebuild
the shattered walls and houses. With a strange
population transplanted into it, Ani soon recovered
from its ruins ; for the Sultan had something more
than a destructive aim. The king of Kars, sole
surviving independent State now left between the
old monarchies and the new barbarian inroad,
averted the impending storm by wearing mourning,
as if for Togrul ; and the generous Arslan accepted
without suspicion this hypocritical compliment. But
the king followed the precedent so often set by
Armenian princes ; he handed over his land to
Rome, by secret compact rather than open agree-
ment, and was promised in exchange a fertile district
and one hundred villages, near the Pontic towns
of Amasea, Comana, and Larissa. But the trusted
and venerable asylum of the oppressed would very
soon be unable to protect the refugee. The eastern
peril pressed gradually westwards. While jealousy
at home starved the Roman armies, the Turkish
troops under Samukh and the Slar-Khorasan had laid
waste Iberia, Mesopotamia, Chaldia, and Melitene ;
from the Euphrates northward to the Caucasus
spread a scene of uniform desolation. Greater
Armenia and Vasparacan are now to experience the
horrors of this destructive war. Roman influence
ebbs in Ani ; and the natural defenders had lost
their spirit in servitude (as they supposed) to a
foreign power. The emperor gave liberty to the
Patriarch Khatchic, at the prayers of the refugee
princes of Sivas; but he survived but a short time,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 455

and died at Cucusa in this year (1064). Would there Further
be a new patriarch, it was anxiously asked ? At last, rff^ef
through the good offices of the Empress Eudocia unhindered.
and Abbas, prince in (or of) Amasea, permission was
extorted from Constantine XL, or rather his Greek
orthodox advisers ; a son of the jmdyia-Tpos Vahram
was chosen under the title of Gregory II. In 1066
a Turkish army ravages the district near the Black
Mountain, on the confines of Asia Minor and the
modern province of Caramania : while another
column penetrates to the province of Telkhoun, and
plunders the district of the confluence of Euphrates
and Melas.

§ 4. The short regency of Eudocia (1067) was Armenian

scandalised by another proof of the ill-feeling be- disaffection;
J « treason of the

tween the " two nations." At Melitene a Roman captain

force was stationed in the garrison, and another
detachment (perhaps the more important) on the
opposite bank ; the latter refused to cross to the
aid of the town. The inhabitants, deserted by their
allies, bear the brunt and the town is taken. Arslan
advances without check to Caesarea, pillaging along
his route, and despoiling the shrine of St. Basil in his
metropolis. He returned by Cilicia and Aleppo,
guided by a Roman renegade. Amerticius, claiming
descent (like most ambitious men in the East) from
the old line of Persian kings, had served the empire
under Michael VI. ; accused to Constantine XI. of
some crime, he had been punished with exile, but,
his innocence soon established, he had been taken
back into fullest confidence and sent against the
Turks. But the disastrous policy of the civilian minis-
ters of war transformed a loyal servant into a foe : he
became desperate owing to the default of pay, sub-
sidies, and commissariat, and was glad to conduct
the Turks to the ready plunder of a country which
for the past hundred years had been singularly free
from ravage. The Roman cause was undermined, as
we see, by national and religious animosities ; but its

456

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Imperial
forces on
Eastern
frontier.

Evil effects of armies, still capable and brave, were honeycombed

civilian ky discontent. Nicephorus Botaneiates, the future
parsimony. J

emperor (1078—1081), commanded a considerable

force in Northern Syria ; but his men disband in
tumult like the soldiers under Tiberius and Maurice ;
and the new levies in Antioch, without cavalry, arms,
uniform, or rations, soon follow their example.

It was impossible for the blind to mistake the
signs of the times. Under a series of princes full
of good intentions and generous impulses, but im-
perfectly informed and unduly influenced, the civilian
and military duel was being fought to a finish. The
inner history of this movement belongs to that
parallel and complementary section, which narrates
the shifting of authority under the nominal auto-
No adequate cracy of the Caesars. But the Eastern annals of
these last fifty years betray unmistakably the
outward symptoms of the disorder. To the short-
sighted civilians this real Eastern danger lay in
independent commands, such as had been con-
fidently bestowed on Curcuas, on Phocas, or on
Catacalon : the Turkish inroads, by the side of this
formidable domestic menace, sank into mere border-
forays, and the submission of the Armenian princes
(which should have aroused the deepest anxiety)
flattered the ignorant pride of the pacific and
luxurious courtiers. The choice of Eudocia may
well have been dictated by a nobler purpose than
mere sentimental attraction. Against the advice and
the perpetual intrigues of the palace and nobility,
Romanus Diogenes was elevated to the throne as
colleague of the young heirs and husband of the
empress. The last military regent of Rome now
appears on the scene, the son of a rebel and a
pretender, and the most tragic figure in later
Roman history, the Regulus of the empire.

§ 5. The campaigns of Romanus IV. belong to
plain historical narrative ; and it is idle to speculate
on the possible results of the loyal and consistent

Lukewarm
support
extended to
B.IV.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 457

support of his lieutenants arid of the court. His Lukewarm
difficulties belong to the domain of political intrigue,
which is elsewhere explored ; and all that here con- #. jy.
cerns us is the inquiry into the general issue of the
war. Its failure was by no means a foregone con-
clusion. The war-party and the upholders of " peace
at any price " were no doubt evenly divided ; and
had the Byzantine empire enjoyed the blessings of
universal suffrage and " popular " control, there is no
reason to believe that the consequences would have
been different. The civilians honestly took up much
the same attitude as the opponents of the Boer war
in England : and both (if mistaken) were sincerely
convinced of the evils of imperialism and a military
ascendancy. (In the actual conduct of the campaign Hiscam-
we note the same strange anomaly as in Heraclius' ^me?Jwf
Persian war. When in the second year (1069) officers;

Romanus proposed to advance to Akhlat. on Lake ™sPicion. °f

At-WT-'tT , . ,. - /• . . Sivas princes.

Van, the Turks were deciding to ignore his inroad

and attack Iconium.) In 1068 we see that Romanus
leaves an Iberian Pharasmanes in command of Hiera-
polis ; and in 1070 the generals include Manuel
Comnenus (a curopalat on his father's death), Nice-
phorus, of the illustrious family of Melissenus, and
Michael the Taronite, of the old princely house so
long domiciled in Constantinople. He performed a
notable feat in bringing his captor to the Roman
court (captus ferum viclorem cepif), a hideous dwarf,
boasting the ancient Persian dynasty among his
ancestors, like all who claimed or attained high
position in this age. It is possible that the favour
shown to this renegade exasperated Arslan. In Catastrophe
1071 he collects all his forces, seizes Manzikert, ofManxikert
and lays ineffectual siege to Edessa and Aleppo ;
at least the empire had not forgotten the arts of
defence with which her valour has been so often
reproached by the historians of the closet. Romanus
was at Sebaste (or Sivas), where once more the mis-
understandings of court and Armenians broke out.

458 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

Catastrophe The princes, Atom and Abousahl, of this feudal
appanage or vassal principality, received him with
respect ; but the familiar charge of disloyalty being
preferred, the emperor believes it and treats the town
as a foreign conquest, refusing the title "king"
which soothed the vanity of the exiles. Advancing
to Manzikert he recovered it and put all Turks to
the sword ; and in his train we note the Armenian
captains, Nicephorus Basilacius and Kbapat. The
great battle of Manzikert follows, the capture and
release of the emperor, the vindictive measure of the
" political " party under the Caesar John, the removal
of Eudocia, the disastrous civil war, and the final
defeat of Romanus at Amasea. Once more, as under
the emperor Phocas, can an eastern monarch plead
a righteous vengeance for his wars. Henceforward
the Turkish Sultan might urge an honourable motive,
the requital of Romanus' death. There is no reason
to distrust the sincerity of his intent ; and it is clear
that the sultan had been deeply impressed by the
fortitude of his gallant foe.

Scanty results K 6. But even while we recognise this change
of Manzikert £ s u A i -J * i • i_ r -7,

(1071}. from a brutal raid to a solemn punishment of guilt,

it is impossible to submit these ancient campaigns
to any rules of modern warfare. It is difficult to
understand what took place in Arslan's councils or
camp during the earlier years of Michael VII. But
little capital was made out of the victory of Manzi-
kert, at least by the central authority ; the sultan
seemed content to denounce the murderers. The
emigration of Armenian princes westward still con-
tinues, and we are left in astonishment at finding that
Cilicia is still considered a safe asylum. In 1072 we
find once more a close connection of the exiled nation-
ality with Cilicia. In this year Abel-Kharp, grand-
son of Khatchic (who called for our notice in 1048),
became a friend of the gentle and studious emperor
who so fitly represented the civil party. Michael
gave the prince command in Tarsus and Mamistria ;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 459

he raises the fortification, and prepares to dwell in Michael VII.
the strong fortress of Paperon, like any feudal noble *%£ffi
in the West. The province becomes by degrees land and

Armenianised : and there is a steady influx of the awar<!s

T , . , . . . . e principalities.

race. His daughter is married to a younger son of

Gagic. Soon after, Ochin (" chased by the Turks,"
according to Samuel of Ani) obeys the invariable
rule ; he cedes his lands to the empire (which was
perhaps almost helpless to defend them), and, joining
Abel in Cilicia, receives from him (with the imperial
sanction) the fort of Lambron (in the extreme west
of the ancient province), where he too exercises wisely
a petty feudal sovereignty. — Meantime Ani, now Ani, content

definitely in Turkish hands, is placed under Emir witfh

-,-., . < -i i yule. rejuses

Phatloun, an aged warrior who soon resigned in to restore

favour of a grandson. This government must have royalty.

been as mild and tolerant as the earlier rule of the

Arabs in the countries they so rapidly annexed.

Gagic, the ex-king of Ani, tried to rewin his crown

when in 1073 Malek Shah succeeded to Alp Arslan :

but among the Armenian princes he finds no sort

of sympathy ; and we may wonder whether this in-

difference was due to lack of patriotism, to a genuine

contentment with the control of Phatloun, or to

dislike for the character of their late sovereign (about

whom a curious story is told of cruelty to a bishop,

set to fight in a pit with his own dog). — The record The interval

of the next few years is unexpectedly scanty and used by Rome

. , i mi T-» i 11 for domestic

interrupted. The Romans seem to have had an sedition.
unfortunate respite for the growth of rebellion,
which diverted their thoughts from the defensive
measures so urgently needed. Michael VII. seems
to have reigned in 1074 over a territory which
nominally touched the Danube and the Euphrates,
and included an effective control over Asia Minor.
The merchant grandees of Amasea were emboldened
to refuse subsidies to Alexius Comnejius, the future
emperor ; the rising of Oursel or Russel could be
repressed without causing undue alarm ; and the

460 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

The interval
used by Rome
for domestic
sedition.

Triumph of
the Military
faction over
House of
Ducas (1078}.

Revolt of
Armenian
Basilacius in
Macedon.

Revolutions
at Antioch ;
seizure by
Armenian
Philaret.

military party must have been slowly recovering
strength and prestige for the dignified " pronunda-
mentos" of Bryennius and Botaneiates. In the last
year of Michael VII. (1077) we read with surprise
of an imperial army quartered at Nisibis, Amida,
and Edessa, and find that it sustained a defeat at
the hands of the Turk, General Gomechtikin : our
astonishment reaches a climax when we discover
(1078) Soliman, another Turk, acting in concert with
the imperialists against the rebel Botaneiates. But
the star of Nicephorus was in the ascendant. He
mounted the throne with the approval of the more
energetic section ; and the seventh Michael, like three
of his predecessors, the first, the fifth, and the sixth
of the name, retired from the palace, to become
the non-resident Archbishop of Ephesus.

§ 7. The last Armenian pretender within the
limits of our period now claims our attention ; also
a Nicephorus, and surnamed Basilacius (or Vasilatzes).
The scene of the fruitless revolt was Macedonia ; en-
gagements took place near the Strymon and the Axius
rivers, and the decisive blow that ended the sedition
came from the mace of Curticius (called a Macedonian,
but of obvious Armenian descent), who killed Manuel,
nephew and chief lieutenant of the pretender. Five
centuries and a quarter had elapsed since the first
conspiracy of Artabanus against Justinian. — Two or
three incidents in Armenian history seem to show
(i) how poorly the Seljukids had followed up the
victory of Manzikert and the political dissensions of
the Romans ; (2) how Turkish influence or example
had corrupted the manners of the Armenians. About
1077, a generation of Turkish atrocities might appear
to have prompted or excused the murder of Khat-
chatour, once Duke of Antioch, now commander of
Andrioun.1 When he fell ill, a Greek monk stifled

1 Is this Andrioun the Adrinople of an earlier Armenian revolt ? Re-
bellions of Armenian pretenders are not uncommon in the Macedonian or
Thracian colonies (Nicephorus Basilacius, Tornicius, Basil the "Mace-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 461

him with a mattress. The faithful troops avenge Revolutions
their master by throwing the assassin from the top f^f^hy'
of a lofty tower. At the same time Antioch became Armenian
jealous of the renown of its Armenian Duke, Vasak ; Philaret.
he is stabbed in the street under cover of offering
a petition ; the soldiers appeal to Philaretus, a char-
acter and a type that deserves some notice. He
came from Varajnouni in Vasparacan, and, after the
death of Romanus IV. (1071), aimed at the creation
of a small independent state. With 20,000 men
devoted to his cause he ousts the " Greek " garrisons
in several towns, encamps before Marach, and begs
Thornic (Tornicius) the Mamigonian, a prince of
Taron and Sassoun, to join him in recovering Ar-
menian autonomy. Thornic, like all the Taronites
loyal to Rome, not only refuses but prepares to
thwart Philaret' s ambitious schemes. But the latter,
indifferent as to the creed of his allies, invokes
Turkish help, overthrows his rival, and makes a
drinking goblet of his skull : it is long since we have
to chronicle such an act of barbarity in the mild
annals of Byzantium, and for the peculiar form of
this savage exultation we must go back to the
Lombards in the middle of the sixth, to the Bul-
garians in the beginning of the ninth century. The
rest of the body was sent to the prince or emir of
Nepherkert, a personal enemy of the dead man. In
such a society we cannot wonder that every attempt
to rebuild a national kingdom should fail. Philaret,
long independent with his Armenian troops, and
seemingly undisturbed by the Turks, secured his
reconciliation with the empire by meting out punish-
ment to the murderers of Vasak ; the indulgent
emperor gave him a complete amnesty and the re- Events in
version of the Duchy of Antioch (c. 1078).— In 1080, $£^n
the third Armenian Bagratid dynasty came to an of CWda.

donian," Samuel, King of Bulgaria and Armenian Colonist (!) ) ; but it is
not possible to locate the rebellion of Sapor, 667, in Europe, and Andrioun
may well have been altered to the better-known name (cf. pp. 380, 452).

462 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Events in
Armenian
kingdom
ofdlicia.

Disappear-
ance of
natives in
Armenia.

end, extinguished in the person of Gagic. This ex-
king, unsuccessful in his hopes of recovering his
sceptre, went down into Cilicia (almost repeopled
with Armenian settlers), and demanded the surrender
of his young son David at Fort Paperon, son-in-law,
and perhaps hostage or prisoner, of Abel-Kharp.
Having received his son he disbands his followers,
and, wandering with a small retinue, is murdered
by obscure treachery. Both David and Abel follow
him to the grave ; and the Paperon principality falls
to Sahak or Isaac, son-in-law of Ochin, who by the
cession of Abel had (as we saw) received in fee
the castle of Lambron. Fortune was severe at the
time on the scions of Bagratid royalty. John, Gagic's
eldest son and David's brother, after marrying the
daughter of the Duke of Ani (?), fled to Iberia, thence
yielding to an irresistible attraction to the Roman
court with his son Ashot. From the Emir of Gandzac,
by a somewhat discreditable covenant, Ashot (leaving
his party) secured the government of Ani as a subject,
where his family had so long ruled in independence.
He was poisoned by the clan of Manoutch£ ; — so
ran the tale of crime and violence in the East during
a short period of five years.

§ 8. There now remained but three scions of the
house of Bagrat — Gagic, the son of Abbas, and the
two princes of Sebaste, who seem to have outlived
their contemporaries, the jealousy of their countrymen
and peers, and the suspicion of the Roman ministers.
From this year (1080) may be dated the disappear-
ance of the Armenian race in its native land. A
tiny principality, Parisos in Onti, struggled in vain
to preserve its freedom, and soon vanished. Religion
fell into decay ; and the Armenian Church was nobly
distinguished by its apostolical poverty, its uncom-
promising but ignorant loyalty to its creed and
traditions. The remnants of the once powerful
race escaped into Cilicia, and founded there the last
and most romantic monarchy in Armenian history.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1057-1081) 463

Reuben, a companion of Gagic, betook himself on Foundation
this king's murder to a canton peopled by his race ofmdepen-

n -±i i5 TT • j xi dent kingdom

— Constantine, a son, was with him. He seized the ofCilida.

forts Cositar (or Conitar, in south of Am) and Bard-
zerberd ; then penetrating the inaccessible Taurus,
and joined by Armenian refugees, he established
himself as king. Basil the Robber possessed a
separate realm at Kesoun, near Marach (or Ger-
manicea) : while the several authorities seem to have
acted in concert against the common foe and to
have maintained to the end an indefinite kind of
vassalage to the empire. But Reuben could not
carry the patriarchate with him. Ani was still the The Patri-
centre of Armenian native tradition : and Barsegh archalSees-
(Barsel or Basil), already bishop, is elevated to the
supreme title (but, as we shall see, he will not rule
without a rival over an undivided Church till some
years later). The consecration of the patriarch took
place at Haghpat in 1082, and Stephen, Albanian
patriarch of Gandzac, performed the ceremony at
the request of Manoutche, governor of Ani (after
young Ashofs untimely death), and Gorigos, king of
Albania, from his capital Lori.

§ 9. We have just overstepped the boundaries of Western
the period marked out, but it is needful to advance ^J^toT °f
even further into the unknown domain lying beyond. Christians.
We shall trace the fortunes of the Armenians in the
next section during the reign of Alexius, 1081— n 18;
for it is impossible to leave the actors in the drama
without inquiring into their later fate. Let us, at
the strict limit of our appointed task, resume the
state of the empire and its dependants up to the
success of the Comnenian clan. In the ten years
between Romanus and Nicephorus, Asia Minor was
overrun by roving and predatory bands of Turks.
Destiny, or the motion of the globe, forced a con-
stant stream of immigrants westwards, spoilers and
refugees alike ; just as six hundred years before the
integrity of the Occidental empire had crumbled

464 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Western
migration of
Oriental
Christians.

Asia Minor
overrun.

Cilicia an
outpost of
Armenian
nationality
and Imperial
tradition.

before the steady inrush of Northern barbarians.
Central Asia stood now to the Roman Empire as
Scandinavia, Denmark, and Germany to the realm
of Honorius or Valentinian III. Armenia had
pressed westwards and yielded only to the irresis-
tible momentum of the Turkish tribes. While Antioch
still remained an imperial fief or duchy, with its
broad territory carefully defined as in Boemund's
treaty of investiture, Smyrna, Ephesus, Laodicea — in
a word, the Seven Churches of the Revelation — and
the western coast -line fell into Turkish hands.
Certain strongholds, like Pergamus and Philadelphia,
may at times be found tenanted by a Roman garri-
son ; but the population that filtered in to occupy
the wild sheep-runs and vast feudal solitudes was
Turk or Turkoman, rightly claiming or usurping
affinity with the great Mongolian family. Meantime,
as with the empire of Attila (c. 450) or with the
later Mongol horde (1200), nothing gave cohesion to
the new Seljuk power, and every emir fought for
himself. The central authority betrays all the well-
known traits of barbarity in the first onset, followed
by tolerance and clemency toward conquered peoples
and their rulers. Armenia proper was not discon-
tented with the government of Malek Shah ; but the
irreconcilable patriots fled with Reuben or with
Basil, and repeopled a territory where the inhabi-
tants had been often shifted since the days of St.
Paul. The emperor was not without power in these
distant and outlying parts ; while (like Justinian or
Phocas) he watched with alarm the manoeuvres of
barbarian squadrons within sight of his own capital.
Armenia preserved a measure of independence
under a suzerain who had not yet learned how to
administer. The new kingdom enjoyed a prosperous
development ; and the captains and pretenders of the
empire, those who defended and those who sought to
destroy, will be found still to belong to the constant
rival of the Greek nationality and religion,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 465

ARMENIANS UNDER THE EMPIRE AND IN CILICIA
DURING THE REIGN OF ALEXIUS I. (1080-1120)

§ 1. It is impossible to take leave summarily of Anomalous
the race whose firm native characteristics impressed ^^pi™ °J
the empire with their own ineffaceable stamp, more under
than half replaced the population, and enabled the Gomnenians.
great feudal revival of the Comneni and Palaeologi
to continue the " Roman " sway for nearly half a
millennium. And as the sequel shows the signifi-
cance of events, as later exponents of a philosophical
school the latent drift of the early masters, so we
can understand the period already surveyed by the
light thrown back upon it by the ensuing years. —
The elevation of the Comnenian clan meant the
triumph of a vigorous policy and the feudal aristo-
cracy ; the dream of the " pacifists " was over. The
army, and indeed the whole military system, had to
be reorganised : the sovereign has to learn once
more to fight in person, and display not merely the
strategy of a captain but the valour of a knight.
It is difficult to realise the Asiatic situation. Turks
appeared in sight of the city, and their earliest
capital was Nice, within the hundredth milestone ;
they manoeuvred on Damalis and ravaged Bithynia.
Yet Alexius defeats them, chases to Nicomedia,
graciously accords peace, exacts the promise not to
pass beyond the Dracon, and makes use of Turkish
reinforcements, which the Sultan is glad to provide.
In spite of this early success which gave hopes of Fluctuating
the recovery of the great wrong, the Turks, ™?™ °£
giving their name by 1085 to the whole country Asia Minor.
(Tovpicia, instead of 'Pco/xema), have made Asia Minor
a heap of ruins, and the inhabitants are carried off
wholesale as slaves or settlers beyond Oxus and
Jaxartes. In their hands lay the once fertile pro-

VOL. II. 2 G

466 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

Fluctuating
success of
Seljuks in
Asia Minor,

vinces of Pontus (with some reservation), Paphla-
gonia, Bithynia (south of Nice), Ionia, Phrygia,
Cappadocia, Lycaonia, Isauria, a portion of Cilicia,
and the Pamphylian coast to Satalia. The con-
quests of Soliman (Suleiman), first Sultan, or per-
haps viceroy of Rum,1 were confirmed by the sanction
and recognition of Malek Shah, head of the con-
quering clan, and by the treachery of Philaret, Duke

1 A few words on the Seljukian kingdoms may not here be out of
place : as in later Mongolian empires a certain family bore unquestioned
sway ; the law of succession was uncertain ; brotherly feuds frequent ;
local emirs apt to assert independence ; and the various centres of the
hereditary branches constantly at feud. The term " Sultan" may be
said to apply to the princes of the blood, while Emir implies a mere
lieutenancy, often in practice independent. There was the Great Sultan
in Irak and Khorasan, like Kublai in Cambaluc in later times (the last
representative being Sinjar, tii57) ; but Aleppo and Damascus (as well
as Nice and Iconium) were seats of petty sovereignties in the family
of Seljuk. The Sultan of Aleppo was a son of Toutoush, and the other
city was occupied by his cadet. This constant subdivision and the
resulting jealousy rendered joint action impossible, and gave the empire
respite from the fate which only came with the Ottoman Turks. — As
for the dominion of Rum, it achieved its zenith in its early years under
Soliman, after the conquest of Antioch had relieved it of a constant
source of anxiety in the rear. When in 1097 Nice surrendered, and the
capital was transferred to Iconium, the Romans recovered a large district
inland and many walled towns ; Turkish emirs, in vague allegiance to
the Seljuk prince, were expelled from Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, Phila-
delphia, Laodicea, Lampes, Polybotus : so overpowering had been the
early inroad, so disastrous the effects of Melissenus' insurrection. When
Arslan (1092-1106) fell back on the north-east of Asia Minor, he
counted on the faithful help of the emirs in that region. But the
Danishmand (from Tailu the "Schoolmaster") effectually hindered his
plans. These had probably entered the district of Sivas soon after the
death or defeat of Romanus IV. : on Soliman's death (imitating Aboul
Cassim) they had seized Sivas, Tokat, Nicsar, Ablastan, Castamouni, and
Malatiyah (the ancient seat of the bitterest foe of the Romans). This
rebel viceroyalty formed an effective counterpoise to the adjoining legiti-
mate dynasty of Rum, and was of valuable help to the Roman revival :
not until the extinction of the Danishmand (1175), after a century of
power, did Iconium become the residence of a free and dangerous
monarch. " Saisan" is unknown to Orientalists ; he is Khahan Shah set
free by the Grand Sultan Mohammed, murdered towards the close of
Alexius' reign after his treaty with the empire, and succeeded by
Masoud, who enjoyed or regretted his long reign of nearly forty years
(1155). The Danishmand were reduced by his son, Kilig Arslan II.,
in 1175-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 467

of Antioch, the Armenian of many parts. We have severed from

spoken of the anomaly, by which Antioch and its ^^

environs remained loyal and imperial, while Ephesus territory.

and Nice belonged to the enemy. This possession

kept the nearer Turks in check by a perpetual

menace in their rear. Whatever raids changed the

aspect of the continent to ruin, while the Romans

held part of Armenia, Trebizond, Cilicia, and Ccele-

Syria, the Seljukian kingdom formed an enclave shut

off from the central frame of their empire. In 1083

Basil (Barshegh), an Armenian, governor of Edessa,

was replaced by an illustrious compatriot, Sembat,

who at once excited the rage and hatred of the

citizens. Philaret fished in troubled waters : he strange

advances to Edessa, seizes Sembat and certain other exploits of

Philaret,
native princes, carries them to Marach (Germamcea), DU^e Of

and blinds them there ; while he makes his own Antioch.
son, Barsames, governor. He soon allies with
Soliman against his father, and takes Antioch (1084).
Philaret escapes to Honi in Dchahan, but expelled by
Emir Poltadji, returns to Marach : and to console
himself in a mean retreat he consecrates a fourth
Armenian patriarch for this new ducal residence.
(Some accounts give as the reason for the unfilial
treachery, the horror which Barsam felt at his
father's apostasy to Islam ; but his own alliance with
Soliman is beyond doubt, and it was a lieutenant of
the Sultan, Aboul-Cassim, who occupied Antioch.)
Sinope was also seized about this time : and the
further advance of Soliman was abruptly stopped
by the jealousy of his kinsmen.

§ 2. Fraternal feuds and the independence of the Adroit
emirate, out of sight of central control, made the *$£% of
consolidation of the Seljuk empire impossible. The jealousy' and
Emir of Aleppo and Mosul claimed from a prince of
the blood the same tribute that guilty Philaret had
paid ; and, met with arms instead of compliance,
had invoked the aid of Toutoush, the Great Sultan's
brother. He, long envious of his cousin Soliman's

Adroit
diplomacy of
Alexius ;
jealousy and
divisions of
Seljukids.

Armenians
high in the
Imperial
service.

468 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

fame and wide dominions, drove him to suicide,
and became the foremost figure among the Seljuks
next to the throne. Asia Minor breaks up like
Germany at the Great Interregnum into numberless
petty emirates ; and at Nice Aboul-Cassim disposes
at will of the late Sultan's power, creates his brother
Pulchas emir in Cappadocia, and assumes the airs
of an independent Sultan. This was now the oppor-
tunity of Alexius. Malek Shah, in his turn, was
suspicious of his brother's rising renown, and allies
with the empire. Alexius, adroitly tampering with
the envoy sent to arrange terms, secures the re-
storation of Sinope, and creates the now Christian
emissary, Duke of Anchialus, to shield him from his
master's resentment on the unknown continent of
Europe. He converted Aboul-Cassim, taught pru-
dence by two defeats, into a friend and ally, indulged
him (on a visit to the capital, still splendid and
inviolate) with all kinds of pleasures and sights,
and invented for his vanity the unmeaning title
ore/Baa-TOTctTos \ Meantime (while Alexius restored,
owing to this alliance, the Roman power in Bithy-
nia), Malek Shah attempted to convince Aboul that
he was but a subject, a lieutenant, and a rebel.
Attempting to appease him, he is strangled by his
orders in far Khorasan. — Such, then, was the state
of affairs in the early reign of Alexius ; he had
recovered large districts by personal prowess or
diplomacy, and the intestine discords of a quarrel-
some and suspicious family allowed him to complete
his success. Meantime, Armenians are still pro-
minent as ever in the imperial armies. His most
trusted generals were natives ; Nicolas " Branas "
or Varaz, and Pacurian, who is Bacouran in his own
tongue. We are not in the least surprised to find
Taticius (?Tadjat), (the Saracen son of a brigand-
captain, reduced to slavery by Alexius' father), in
command of a Persian colony in Macedonia : these
bore the name HapSapiwrai, or Vardariots, from the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 469

river Bardar, not far from Achrida. These claimed Armenians
descent from the Persian contingents of Babec and jjjj^jy^
Theophobus, prudently distributed among all the service.
Roman themes (c. 840) ; gave an Armenian name to
the classical stream ; and sustained in this foreign
land the tradition of the corps. Similar Eastern
reinforcements came from the isolated Paulician
centre of Philippopolis, where heretics of Armenian
descent kept up their faith and customs. Nor was
the voluntary aid of the semi-independent Cilician
princes behindhand ; the prince of Lambron, Ochin,
joins Alexius' armies, is nearly killed at the engage-
ment of Dyrrhachium, owes his recovery to the
devoted care of the emperor (admirable friend and
placable foe), and procures the appointment of Prince
(or Duke) of Tarsus, with the title of Augustus
(2e/3acrT09). Ochin, father of Haiton (Haythonus),
is the ancestor of St. Narses of Lambron.

§ 3. Meantime, how fared the Armenian popula- Mild rule of
tion, as yet true to their native soil ? The rule of Malek in
Malek Shah over the vassal-princes was mild and
indulgent to the Christians throughout the East, with
that true indifference to religious forms which marks
the Turk and the Mongol. A great part of Armenia
was still in Roman hands ; and perhaps Ani did not
finally leave the empire until 1086. The government
was left to the Manoutche ; and the Sultan advancing
without opposition to the shores of the Black Sea,
drove his horse into the waves ; thereby solemnly
claiming possession, like the Spanish loyalists in the
early times of American discovery. To the manes of
his father he uttered a proud and pious boast :
" Your little son, once an infant, now reigns to the
uttermost ends of the earth." His general, Pouzan,
laid siege to Edessa (1087); and Barsames (son of
Philaret), unpopular with the citizens, threw himself
from a tower over the wall, and sustaining terrible
injuries, was tended till death ensued in the enemy's
camp. The Edessenes capitulated; and the town

470 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Mild rule of
Malek in
Armenia
proper.

Concilia-
tion of
Armenians.

His wise
reign followed
by civil strife
(1092-1097).

continued under Turkish influence, and perhaps under
a Roman governor, until the coming of Baldwin and
the creation of the first independent Latin principality.
In 1088 Gandzac was taken by assault, and Phatloun
(grandson of the first emir) was taken prisoner and
replaced by another governor. While the realm was
extending, internal administration was not without
merit. The patriarch Barsegh (or Basil) applied to
the Sultan for the diminution of imposts and tributes
(1090) and also of the number of patriarchs, no less
vexatious.

The scattered faithful of the Armenian Church
recognised four metropolitan sees, and it seemed
probable that with each new principality of refugees
the archiepiscopal control would be further divided.
Basil secures the resignation or submission of the
patriarch of Honi (after a fourteen years' rule) and
of the patriarch of Edessa. About this time, such
was the favour extended by the Sultan, Liparit (no
doubt kinsman of the earlier broken reed) embraced
Islam ; and Gorigos (already named as Albanian king
in Chaki), visits the Persian court and returns loaded
with gifts. Sometime before his death (the com-
putation of time being obscure in Samuel of Ani and
others), Malek Shah, significantly accompanied by this
Albanian king and a certain George II. of some
petty Caucasian monarchy, advances from Khorasan
to capture Antioch ; Philaret, who seems to have
maintained friendly terms with the various masters of
the city, was indemnified by the charge of Marach,
the price of his conversion to the Mahometan faith.
Malek, from Antioch as his headquarters, pushed
forward to the Mediterranean, and there in the same
dramatic fashion took possession of the Southern
Sea. The death of this wise and tolerant potentate
(1092, but according to Samuel of Ani, 1095) was the
signal for civil war, and the disruption of the
empire which he had done so much to consolidate.
Toutoush was suspected of poisoning his brother,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 471

and his claim (natural enough in Turkish tradition) His wise

was not recognised. Pouzan, the great general, like

Bahram the Persian, rebels, but is defeated and (1092-1097).

killed ; the sceptre was not to pass out of the line

of Seljuk. The four years of civil war dissolved the

strength of the military caste ; many rebel captains

tender homage, and Barkiarok, son of Malek, is able

to establish himself in Armenia and Persia, and

finally to remove his uncle Toutoush in 1097.

§ 4. But to return : the death of Malek had im- Seljuks at
mediate effect on the Sultanate of Nice (1092) i and Nice-
the fortunes of the empire. Two sons of Soliman
escape from their honourable captivity as hostages for
their father's allegiance ; and David Kilig Arslan I.,
the elder, is welcomed by the Nicenes with genuine
heartiness. He secures the permanence and con-
tentment of the Turkish garrison by sending for
their wives and children, and replaces the suspected
Pulchas (brother of the late rebel governor) by
Mohammed, with the title " first of Emirs." Alexius
had not been able of late to pursue his persistent
policy of recuperation. The Comans and Patzinaks
spread more terror in the capital than the nearer yet
less deadly Turks. In 1091, Alexius was exposed to Armenian
yet another Armenian plot : Ariebus (Ariev, Arm. = p^e^
sun) conspires with a Frank to kill the hard-working Duchy of
prince ; the plot was discovered and the conspirators
treated with that excessive leniency which is a stand-
ing marvel in all Byzantine rulers, and Alexius in
particular. Trebizond now begins to enter into
serious history and give an augury of its future fame.
Malek might ride proudly into the Euxine, but the
empire still possessed the seaports and convoys of
the northern coast of Asia Minor. It had shown a
stout resistance to the Turks, and it may be surmised
that Pontus was still independent. A native, Theodore
Gabras, recovered it from their hands and received
his own conquest in fief from the emperor with
the ducal title ; while Gregory, his son, was invited to

472 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Armenian the capital for an alliance with the imperial house
PAk^Tthe and formally betrothed to Mary, then aged six years.
Duchy of (The impetuous and ungrateful youth was involved in
TreMzond. a pjot against his benefactor and sovereign ; but was
merely confined among the Paulician colony at
Philippopolis.) We may inquire, without requiring
or expecting a reply, whether at some time Trebizond
did not fall under the sway of David III. the Repairer,
king of Georgia from 1090—1130? His sway ex-
tended over all Lazica ; but if he controlled Trebi-
zond it was for a brief space. Theodore Gabras
chased him as he had chased the Turks.

General state The Armenian emirs, relieved of the control of
wrivaltffhe * firm ^et benevolent Sultan, oppressed their subjects
Crusaders. after 1092. A fresh exodus transported many natives
into the artificial Armenia of king Reuben, and still
further denuded the original home of the race.
Monks above all fled from the wrath to come. Yet
Ani still remained a centre of patriotic sentiment :
Gregory, father of the patriarch Basil, repelled an
assault on Ani, and followed up his victory by using
the troops of Emir Manoutche to obtain possession
of Gagsovan, himself falling in the successful assault.
Meantime, the Armenian servants of the empire
showed the old aptitude for conspiracy, to be met
by the consistent clemency of the Caesar; in 1093,
Michael the Taronite, brother-in-law of Alexius,
dignified by the title HavvTrepa-e/Baa-Tos, joined the
futile conspiracy of Diogenes (son of the late em-
peror). A second Catacalon Catacecaumenus (from
Phrygia ?), who had served gallantly at the Calabrya
engagement, was also found among the insurgents.
Exile and confiscation follow discovery ; but John
Taronite, son of Michael, is continued in office and
favour. — On the eve of the first Crusade, there was
peace in the East ; and the undisputed realm of
David Kilig Arslan I. stretched from Orontes and
Euphrates to the Bosphorus. (We may note in
passing that about this time Alexius entertained a

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 473

proposal to welcome the English refugees from General state
Norman tyranny at the seaport of Cibotus, near ^^i^the
Nicomedia. Saxon guardsmen were not uncommon, Crusaders.
but an English settlement was never an accom-
plished fact on the shores of the cosmopolitan
empire.)

§ 5. The Crusaders arrived and the Roman world Reconquest of
was thrown open to the foreigners, like the Middle *££j***
Kingdom in our own day. They came not as recruits Armenian
or settlers, but as visitors, doubtful allies, finally as principalities.
foes and conquerors. We will only follow events in
the familiar campaign so far as they concern our
purpose, the re-establishment of Roman authority in
the peninsula, and the condition of the Armenian
race. The fall of Nice in 1097 implied the removal
of the Seljuk capital or rather headquarters from
the immediate vicinity of Constantinople ; and from
this fateful moment Roman influence steadily revived.
The next conquest of importance was Edessa, where
Baldwin fixed the earliest independent principality.
There was still a shadow left in that city of Roman
power ; as in the cities of Northern Gaul in the
time of Clovis and Syagrius. Thoros (Theodore)
had received his commission from Romanus IV.
(c. 1070); and after the manifold vicissitudes of
Oriental fortresses, with their almost annual change
of masters, he had somehow managed during the
inroads of Philaret, Barsames, and Pouzan to retain
a delegated, or acquire an independent, authority.1
Edessa welcomed the Latin ; perhaps the Prankish Latins
settlers had made a better impression in the East ^eri
than their countrymen elsewhere. The aged Thoros Armenians.
adopted Baldwin as his son and shares the govern-

1 He is Gibbon's " Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been suffered
under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of Edessa." He
was of course an Armenian ; and the Turks, without regular method of
government, employed harmless officials or native princes, much as the
Western invaders availed themselves of the existing methods of Roman
bureaucracy and finance. In the constant Seljukian feuds there was every
opportunity for such a viceroy to assume an independent role.

474 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Latins ment ; but he perishes in an obscure popular rising,

wtth™1*6 and the whole-hearted allegiance of the citizens
Armenians, is transferred to the Latin adventurer. Armenians
aided him ; a certain Bagrat was a warm supporter
(probably not a member of the dynasty) ; and Con-
stantine I. added his help, king in Cilician Armenia,
who had succeeded on Reuben's death after a reign
of fifteen years (ioSo-1095).1 It was this first in-
heritor of a romantic crown who moved the capital
to a fortress newly acquired, Vahca in Cilicia, aided
by the loyal support of Bazouni, Prince of Lambron,
and Ochin his brother, governor and Duke of
Tarsus (in virtue of a direct imperial commission).
Their services It would appear that the forms of feudalism and
Crusaders aristocratic independence were carefully preserved
in the new kingdom ; that the lesser princes warmly
supported a tactful and courageous monarch ; and
that over all, the empire threw a vague halo of
suzerain influence and honorific titles, as it had done
(for instance) on the Lazic and Iberian sovereign in
happier days. Nor were the Armenians unfriendly
either to Turks or to Crusaders : so efficient and
opportune were the subsidies of king Constantine to
the famished Latins that, on the capture of Antioch,
he was richly recompensed, and believed his royal
dignity further augmented, by the grateful titles,
marquis, aspet, and i/Traro?. The Western powers
did not forget this seasonable aid; Gregory XIII.
mentions his services to the cause of Christendom in
a Bull of 1584. — In this same year, 1097, we read
of the succession of a grandson of Gregory jmayia-rpos
to the feudal fortress of Dzophk in the old Fourth
Armenia : he was an Arsacid on his mother's side
(a sister of the patriarch Gregory) ; and while his
brother attained patriarchal rank in Egypt, his son
Narses was celebrated for his elegant Armenian

1 It is fair to say that some authors cannot identify this Constantine
with the king, but suppose him to be a feudal prince of Gargar, a district
near Marach.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 475

writings, — a taste which was a family gift from his
ancestor in the days of Basil II.

§ 6. Boemund (the constant foe and at last the Rivals to
humble vassal of the adroit emperor) founded the f^*^
principality of Antioch in 1098, destined to survive Antioch and
for nearly two hundred years under nine princes. It Edessa ; the
was in vain that the Sultan sent a great force of L
360,000 men under Korbouga.1 Anna Comnena's
avapiOwToi ^At'afe1 were swept away or annihilated
by the courage of famished despair. Armenia proper
was exposed to an invasion of Soliman, son of Ortukh,
who marched into Vanand. But the Seljuks were
already enfeebled by contested claims and the revolt
of lieutenants ; the curious and obscure power of the
Danishmand had been established in the neigh-
bourhood of Sivas.2 He was a lettered Armenian
apostate (such were the careless or democratic
methods of the Turks) who governed the territory
of Sebaste (lately occupied by Atom and his brother),
and had joined the district of Malatiyah (Melitene).
Lying between Rum and the suzerain-sultanate he

1 This dignitary is oddly named by Matthew of Edessa, Couropaghat (the
Armenian transliteration of Curopalaf) : his full name would seem to be
Kawam ad-Dawla (pillar of the State) Kurbugha ; and if in the Chanson
d'Antioche he is termed Carbaran d'Oliferne, I am inclined to believe
some legend compared him to Holofernes, and told (no doubt untruly) of
some feminine stratagem by which he was overcome.

2 This obscure dynasty, at first helpers of Kilig Arslan and then rivals
or foes of his house, are perhaps the only family who have gloried in the
scholastic title of " pedagogue." The name means schoolmaster, and is
borne not only by the founder Tailu but by his successors, to the despair
of the numismatologist of princely series. His eldest son, Khazi, speedily
learnt the Turkish lesson, " the slaughter of the innocents " (or did he set
the terrible precedent ?). He mounted the throne (1104) in the same year
that removed Soliman, son of Ortukh, Toutoush, Seljukian prince of
Damascus, and the Great Sultan Barkiarok. But he at once murdered his
eleven brethren. On the death of Soliman, the family possessed the
centres of Sivas, Tokat, Nicsar, Ablastan, Malatiyah, and perhaps
Kastamouni ; and may well have begun their ambitious career directly
after the death of Romanus IV. (1071). Ahmed Khazi (fii35) was suc-
ceeded by the short reign of his son, Mohammed (fi!43), an^ ^ was onty
on the extinction of this house, after a century's power (1175), that the
kingdom of Rum again revived.

476

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF mv. c

Rivals to reigned as an independent prince, coerced the
former power as it was closed in by the judicious
Antioch and advances of Alexius, and perhaps atoned by this
Edessa; the unwilling service to the empire for the sin of apostasy.

Damshmand.

Imperial

tion to
2103*1104

_. . _.

But in no way did he deserve so well of the emperor

as in his imprisonment of the Prince of Antioch.
He captured him on a field, where two militant
Armenian prelates are said to have met their fate,
held him to ransom, and accepted the price of
10,000 gold pieces from another Armenian, the
general Basil (Barshegh) the Robber, Prince of
Kesoun- Tancred, regent for the absent prince,
repudiated the debt, and increased the bounds of the
principality J yet while he thus despoiled the robber
by a mean evasion, he contrived to secure the
alliance of the Armenian princes. But meantime
the empire was just preparing to make good its
suzerain-rights over the vassal-kingdom. The im-
perialist generals Butumites (1103) and Monastras
(i 104) established once more Roman prestige; the
one by seizing Marach and leaving troops there,
the latter, by the occupation of Tarsus, Adana, and
Mopsuestia (Mamistria) ; and, as some would convey,
of the entire province. Seven years before, William
of Tyre may well be pardoned for supposing Tarsus
to be in Turkish hands, though it was still under an
imperial lieutenant, Ochin : for the allegiance to the
far-off emperor was a mere shadow of servitude.
But the early years of this twelfth century witnessed
a great and welcome reaction in the tide of Roman
fortunes ; and, if to use Gibbon's suppressed simile,
the jackal (Alexius) followed the lions, it is certain that
he knew how to turn to advantage both his own
victories and their mistakes. In 1 105, there are to
our surprise two efficient imperial armies in the
East, in Syria under Cantacuzen, and in Cilicia under
Monastras ; and when the latter is relieved, his
successor is known by an Armenian title not a
name, — A spef('Aar7reTrj9), constable, which to the Greek

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 477

ears may have suggested some Homeric adjective, Curious
the "immense" or "unspeakable." Constantine I.
had died in 1099; and Thoros or Theodore had general.
succeeded to rule in the " land of Thoros." Under
Roman influence and approval, he enlarged his
mountain-realm, added Anazarbus to the important
fortress of Kendroscavi, and (with the Moslem loyally
obedient) ruled over a mixed population and a tract
of two days' by sixteen days' journey. It is hard
to say whether the imperial army superseded, or
supported, or competed with the royal authority.
Certain it is that the Aspetes gained a peculiar
notoriety for somnolence and excess ; and in a
drunken slumber was transported unconscious to
Antioch by Tancred, who secured Mamistria and
predominant influence in Cilicia. (It is only fair to
add that the incident is unknown to Armenian
writers, and may be as apocryphal as Anna Comnena's
legend of Boemund and the cock in the coffin.)

§ 7. But the province was unsettled and tempting War of
enough to attract the Great Sultan himself. In
1107 or 1 1 08, Taphar (Barkiarok's successor) Cilicia.
ravaged the land of king Thoros. Basil sets on him
and defeats, returning in patriotic joy to his fortress-
capital Kesoun. But Taphar comes back ashamed
and angry with a larger force, and lays siege to
Harthan. Once more Basil achieves a notable
victory, and receives a petition for reinforcements
from Baldwin of Edessa, to which he assents. But
to his surprise he learns that his men are to be used
against Tancred ; he sharply refused to go against
one "who had always been friendly to the
Armenians." Now it may be possible, with this Amity of
indirect intimation, to give some account of the
perplexing changes in Cilician "Armenia" which we Antioch.
have just recorded. If Tancred was their firm and
trusty friend, his advent and capture of the Aspet
(Alexius' general) was either purely apocryphal or
carried out in alliance with the native princes. Here

478 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Amity of
Armenia and
Tancred of
Antioch.

Boemund
becomes
Vassal of the
empire.

in Roman
administra-
tion: the
Duchy.)

we may well suspect another instance of the alienation
of the feudal mind (very local, personal, and impulsive)
at the uniform demands of imperialism. Though
himself an Armenian, the Aspet may have come
as a helper of the nationalists, and ended, as other
Byzantine captains, as a foe more hated than the
infidel. But in the welter of feudalism it is not easy
to extricate the thread of private motive, much less
that of political principle ; and a great change comes
over the East in 1108, when the " thirty years' war"
is over with Boemund, and the fiercest assailant of
the empire becomes the dutiful liegeman (X/£to?) of
Alexius. The terms of this curious infeudation are little
short of amazing: the emperor grants what he certainly
could not give, and makes over a life-interest to his
vassal and feudal control over a district, including
the towns of Antioch, Borzes, Shizar (Larissa on the
Orontes), Artakh, Tolukh, Saint Elias, Marach, and
the districts of Pagres, Palaza, and Zyme ; always
excepting that which belongs to the Armenian sub-
jects of the empire. From the ancient duchy of
Antioch was detached all Cilicia east of the Cydnus,
and a portion of Syria round Laodicea, Gabala,
Marathus, Antaradus, and Batanea. Boemund
secured an annual pension or subsidy of 200 pounds
of gold and the dignified, if unmeaning, title of
Ze'/Saa-ro? ; he died in 1 1 1 1.

At this point in our story it may be well to
notice briefly the changes in Roman provincial
government, of which the ducal system is the final
phase. At first, governors united civil and military
duties ; were judge of assize and lord-lieutenant and
sheriff all in one. About A.D. 300, the well-known
separation of department took place ; and specialism
reigned supreme down to the days of Heraclius.
The Thematic scheme recognised the extinction of the
civil magistrate and the ascendancy of the captain
of the district corps. Localities were renamed after
the regimental titles ; and the problem of civil

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 479

ruler and municipal methods becomes for us in- (Changes
soluble. The vague designations, Anatolics, Armeniacs, ^d^r
Buccellarians, Cibyrrhceots, and the like, disappear in tion: the
their turn ; the commanders are Domestics, and the Duchy. \
old classical nomenclature is revived for the countries
of Asia Minor. A last step is the transference of
control to dukes ruling the garrison in important
centres as Antioch, and acting as arbiter in the rare
disputes which could not be settled by local custom
and precedent. It may be doubted whether these local
and urban duchies were a reminiscence of the early
Latin title (so common in Ammianus) or came back
into use by way of Spoleto and Benevent and the
lessons taught by Southern Italy.

§8. In 1107, we must notice a plot against Another
Alexius, Armenian according to some authors,
Pontic in the account of others. Was Gregory, now
Duke of Trebizond, the Taronite who displaced the
suspected Gabras clan? Or was he the Gregory
Gabras himself, affianced to the emperor's daughter
Mary, who had already conspired, and been already
forgiven ? I am inclined to respect both the judg-
ment of Fallmerayer and the well-known indulgence
of the emperor. Seizing Trebizond as an indepen-
dent domain or fortress, like the emirs around him,
Danishmand or other, he was confronted by a
Taronite (his own cousin, if we believe the former
story). Brought captive to Byzantium, he almost
eluded the imperial clemency by the violence of his
language ; but mollified by captivity and time he
mends his ways, is restored to favour, and once
more regains his duchy by the favour of the generous
emperor. Captured (if it be still the same governor
and not a son) in 1142 by the Danishmand Emir
of Melitene and the Emir of Kamakh, he was able
to offer the enormous ransom of 30,000 pieces of
gold, a certain sign of the original wealth and power
of rapid recovery which the great coast-towns of
Lesser Asia always possessed.

480 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF

DIV. C

Desultory
fighting in
East between
Franks and
Armenians.

Difficulties
of Mm.

In 1109 the restless spirit of Norse individualism
or crusading zeal led Baldwin and Joscelin into an
attack upon Harran. Apolasar, Prince of Taron,
joined them (as he had joined Cilician Basil some time
before against the Seljuks) : he met his death in the
expedition. The Emir of Mosul made reprisals and
laid siege to Edessa, retiring before the united forces of
the Christian princes, but returning after their de-
parture to inflict serious damage on the city. Next
year, the Turks invade the "realm of Thoros " ; but
the king with his brother Leo (Ghevond) can repulse
their attacks. In default they turn (i 1 10) against the
little feudal fortress of Dzophk in the Mesopotamian
district, where the new prince Apirat, of the brave
stock of Gregory mdyiarTpos, is completely successful ;
but in the moment of victory is killed by a chance
arrow from an ambuscade. Next year, Tancred and
Basil vanish from the turbulent scene. — Meantime, in
Lesser Asia the Seljukian kingdom of Rum had been
enjoying a certain respite from its anxieties ; Kilig
Arslan I.'s son was careful to maintain good terms
with the reviving empire, and with a prince who
knew how to turn every success and every failure to
his own profit. But on his Eastern frontier (if we
may use the term of his vague and shifting " sphere
of influence " round Iconium) he knew no security.
The "Schoolmaster" dynasty gave him no peace; and
in 1 1 1 2 he drowned himself in the river Chaldras near
Edessa to escape his foe, the Emir Dcholi ; he had
reigned six years (1106-12). His son " Saisan "
pursued a more vigorous policy ; he ravaged the
open country of the Romans from Philadelphia to
the Ionian coast. That city (destined in later times
to be the last solitary outpost of Roman power in
Asia) contained a strong garrison under Constantine
Gabras : and neighbouring Pergamus was held by the
veteran Monastras. Gabras, retrieving the treason
of his family, and justifying the wise confidence of
the emperor, defeats Saisan and forces him to

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 481

sue for peace ; it was concluded on honourable
terms.

A great blow fell on the Western provinces in the Alexius
next year : the central Seljukian power in Khorasan c,hecks an
aimed a deadly stroke at the reviving prosperity of Khorasan.
Asia. All the country from Nice to Adramyttium
was ravaged ; and all the coast-towns along Troas
and Mysia were sacked, with Prusa, Apollonia, and
Cyzicus. Eustachius Camyzes, governor of Nice,
was defeated and captured ; and it was the veteran
Alexius in person who turned the scale. Twice he
defeated the Turks, and returned home to receive
the sincere congratulations of the capital. This
victory ensured a welcome term of peace.

§ 9. About this time happened the great earth- Armenian
quake described by Matthew of Edessa, which in the sovereigns
distressed country added the catastrophes of Nature Earthquake.
to the gratuitous havoc of man. Chiefly attacking
the neighbourhood of Samosata, Kesoun, and Marach,
it is said to have destroyed 40,000 Turks. The
conservative character of the princes of the East
is here well displayed, a contrast to the mere destruc-
tive raids which seem so often to exhaust the Turks'
conception of "administration." The Armenian
kings Thoros and Leo hasten, like modern sovereigns,
to the scene, and bestir themselves to relieve the
distressed and raise their shattered homes; their
humane efforts are seconded by a Camsar prince
in Mesopotamia, Basil the Child. — We have read of Baldwin of

the aid and countenance given by these Armenian Edessa

J reduces the

princes to the Crusaders : the return was not seldom Armenian

a sorry one, and the extinction of these small and principalities.
ancient sovereignties was hastened by the crafty
greed of the Latin, no less than by the jealous cen-
tralism of Byzantium, or the wanton destructiveness
of the Seljuk. Baldwin, Prince or Count of Edessa,
having married his sister to Leo of Cilicia, lures
Basil into confinement and seizes his estates.
Alexius, unable to avenge this treacherous act,
VOL. n. 2 H

482 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DIV. c

Baldwin of welcomed the dispossessed prince with the invariable
reduces the Byzantine courtesy. The only son of Thoros, Con-
Armenian stantine, died at this juncture. Suspicion pointed
principalities. an jrfle finger at the intrigues of his uncle Leo ; and
if we were inclined to impute motive or listen to
slander, we might suppose that Leo and Baldwin had
conspired to divide between them the remnants of
the Christian kingdoms in the Mesopotamian region.
In 1117, Baldwin continued his offensive policy.
Ignorant of the arts of peace or the duties of a ruler,
he confused thoughtless acquisitiveness with states-
manship ; and believed that he governed when he
merely laid waste and thwarted development : he
attacked the town and province of Pir lying south-
west of Sroudj, and was delayed a whole year before
the principal fortress. He deprived another Ar-
menian prince of his estates, a former ally of the
first Baldwin, and thus ungratefully repaid his im-
prudent services: he took from him the town and
residence of Araventan.

state of Asia Meantime the gradual desolation of the fertile and
res^^lict P°PU^°US Lesser Asia was stealthily and steadily
of Mm. proceeding. Clouds of Turks, Turkmans, and Kurds
poured in, bands succeeding one after the other, pillag-
ing and wasting, and even demolishing the ancient
and deserted sites to pitch their nomad tents over
the ruins of Lydian, Hellenic, and Roman culture.
" Saisan " again breaks faith with the empire ; and
Alexius, now a martyr to the gout, rises from his
sick-bed to teach him a lesson. He projected the
capture of Iconium, for twenty years the head-
quarters of the Seljukian encampment, in answer to
the insulting farces of the palace, where his malady
was caricatured amid the laughter of the Sultan and
courtiers. Several brave but indecisive engagements
were fought near Nicomedia ; and Bardas (grandson
of Burtzes, commander under Basil II.) was entrusted
with a troop to reconquer his heritage, which, now
occupied by Turks, had been then bestowed as a

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1080-1120) 488

reward of merit. It is uncertain whether he attained State of Asia

his end ; but it is clear that Alexius and Bardas re- m™r> 112°>

restless policy
pulsed the Turks, and welcomed to an asylum in 0fRAm.

Constantinople a multitude of expatriated Asiatics,
followed by wives and children, with that protective
instinct which, sometimes obscured, never failed en-
tirely in the rulers of Rome. Alexius established for
their benefit monasteries, almshouses, and hospitals ;
and in 1116 opened his doors wide to admit the
monks of Iberia, who came westward in crowds from
the turmoil of the new invaders to the settled and
orderly commonwealth, — which, having enervated
its citizens by relieving them of arms and military
duties, could do no less than protect them. — Saisan, Homage to
a prince of inconsequent spirit and easily repenting ^^us; hl*
of his boldness, soon sued for peace after a personal
defeat. He showed his intense reverence for the
imperial dignity and its wearer by dutiful courtesy
on a Phrygian plain, where the two monarchs held
an interview. But once more fraternal discord inter-
vened, not to save Rome from a foe but to spoil a
welcome treaty ; Masoud, no doubt representing the
"unbending Turk party," murdered his brother on
his return. In 1118 died the Emperor Alexius I.,
and it is not without import that, when John his son
marches to the palace to secure the succession, he
should meet Abasgian envoys on the way, bringing
the daughter of David III. the Restorer to marry a
member of the noble house of Bryennius. With this
last instance of the continuous relations of these
countries to the empire, we shall end this historical
sketch.

APPENDIX

(/ venture to annex another account of the motives and signi-
Jicance of the Revolutions (695, fyc.) during the Anarchy. It
was written in a somewhat different connection and with another
purpose. It is hoped that the two versions may be mutually
complementary. )

THE ARISTOCRACY AND THE PROVINCIAL REGIMENTS ;
OR EMPEROR, SENATE, AND ARMY DURING THE
GREAT ANARCHY (690-720)

§ 1. THE monarchy under the Heracliads was un- Predomin-

popular with both ranks in the State-service; and ance ,
however beneficial the work of former rulers, nothing regiments:

but good fortune and great personal tact could up- the empire
• i , .« , T \i i -j.- now Asiatic.

hold the central power. In the summary deposition

and mutilation of Justinian II. by an obscure cabal
it had suffered a grievous blow. In the next brief
period between Justinian's first dethronement and
the peaceful secession of Theodosius III. (685-
717), the two parties in the State contend for the
mastery. No question is raised of altering the
form of the constitution ; but the sovereign is to be
rendered harmless, a negligible quantity. The pro-
vincial regiments, created in the newly recovered
districts of Lesser Asia, and to some extent in the
vague centres of imperial influence still left in
Hellas and Thrace, usurp a prominent share in the
election of rulers, which the Eastern realm but
rarely witnesses. Phocas, indeed, had been the dis-
astrous product of a military revolution ; Heraclius,
like Galba, Vespasian or Severus, had arrived at the
head of a local contingent to save the capital from
itself. But in the curious and often decisive pro-
minence of the Obsicians and Anatolics, it is possible

485

486

APPENDIX

Predomin-
ance of the
provincial
regiments :
the empire
now Asiatic.

to detect a wider and deeper issue than the mere
brute force and narrow motive of local levies. The
Roman Empire, with its centre of gravity, is being
shifted eastward ; and although the ambiguous
city of Constantine hangs doubtfully between either
continent, there is no question in the next age of its
orientation. The desolation of Thrace, the wide,
autonomous, and pastoral communities of "Sclavinia,"
the ebbing of the tide of Roman and Hellenic
influence in the European part of the empire, the
rare oases of urban culture and commerce cling-
ing to the outskirts of a barbaric continent, the shifting
of interest to the lands most imperilled by the Arab
advance, — this is the picture which the obscure re-
cords of the Heracliads open to us. The empire
was in truth confined as an effective power to Asia
Minor ; and with Asia Minor will rest the arbitrament
of its future destinies. The torch of the Roman
tradition had passed from Spaniard to African and
Syrian, and from these again to Illyrians and Pan-
nonians. We have shown how from Decius to the
second Justin (250-578) the Balkan peninsula sup-
plies Rome both with sovereigns and soldiers. A
new epoch opens in the last years of the sixth
century ; and it is not without good reason that
(as Gibbon tells us), "Tiberius by the Arabs and
Maurice by the Italians are distinguished as the
first of the Greek Caesars." But strictly Hellenic
influence was never fated to predominate at By-
zantium that anomalous outpost of Roman law in
the Greek and Oriental world. Infrequent, precarious,
and unsuccessful is the intervention of an authority
purely Greek ; it is largely feminine, and is therefore
strongest when indirectly exerted. Still the Roman
ideal called from the very ends of the earth repre-
sentatives of divers races to carry on the imperishable
tradition ; but it did not appeal, or it appealed in
vain, to its ancient rivals, the Greeks. Whatever the
exact nationality of Heraclius, he is plainly typical

APPENDIX 487

of Roman character ; and his eyes look westwards to Predomin-
Africa and Italy. But after the reign of Constantine aruseofthe
IV. there is no further hesitation as to the important regiments:
part to be played by Byzantium in the further East ; the empire
the reforms and Thematic reorganisation did little or mw Asi
nothing for Europe, everything for Asia Minor. The
sceptre passes to Armenia and Syria ; and the European
side plays (until the days of Basil II.) an insignifi-
cant role in the fortunes of that strange fiction, the
" commonwealth of the Romans."

§ 2. The reconquest from Persia, the needs of de- Permanent
fence west of Mount Taurus against the caliphate, The™atic
had decided the form of the new administration.
Great districts were roughly mapped out for the
patrol of permanent legions, with no great solicitude
for precise frontiers or well-defined duties. I am
not convinced that civil magistrates, despatched
from the capital, vanished entirely from the scene ;
but their powers were now subordinate, and enter
nowhere into the light of political interest. The
cities had their respectable or episcopal rulers ; the
country its semi-feudal chieftains, not seldom wisely
identified by the government with the regimental
leaders. The legislation of Leo III. shows the tend-
ency of an earlier age ; neither the serf nor the
small yeoman proprietor survived. Castles rose in
Cappadocian fastnesses ; already under Phocas and
Heraclius, a local nobleman was able in true
mediaeval fashion to baffle and mortify the sovereign
and entertain the forces of the State as if they formed
a private militia. The armies were necessary ; first
Anatolics, Obsicians, Armeniacs, and then as needs
multiplied, Thracensians, Optimates, Buccellarians.
But it was essential that they should be governed
from the centre ; and as the centre was never too
stable in the empire with all its majestic pretension,
they ended in controlling rather than being con-
trolled. We find under Constantine IV. the half-
religious, half-military rising in favour of a triad of

488

APPENDIX

Revolutions emperors ; and though beaten then, the provincial
of695, 698. army does not forget. Leontius was named General
of Hellas when he opened the Byzantine Bastille and
overthrew the tyrant (685) ; but he had commanded
the Anatolics, had served with distinction in the far
East, and derived his ancestry from Isauria. He is
replaced by a Gotho-Greek from Pamphylia, whose
barbarous name Apsimar bears witness to his original
race. Not for the first or last time do we record
the rebellion of an army disgraced and defeated, the
insurrection and success of a general who had failed.
The expedition to relieve Carthage had proved
abortive, apparently owing to the dissensions of the
lieutenants, their reluctant support to John the Patri-
cian. Fearing his protest at the capital, they united
and elected an admiral, — sailing, as Romanus Leca-
penus and his companions two hundred years later, to
upset the reigning prince. This mutiny is maritime
and Asiatic ; it is indifferent to race, but it is a re-
specter of names, and seeks (as it would appear) to
affiliate itself to the fallen house of the second Justinian.
The name Tiberius is revived, borne by two joint-
emperors in the century before ; and the new ruler,
when he bestows on his brother sole command of
the Asiatic cavalry, and of the passes of Cappadocia,
gives him the not less venerable name of " Heraclius."
Both these revolutions, then, are Asiatic, and while a
general expels a tyrant, an admiral, quite in the
manner of Septimius Severus, reverts to the exiled
line in his choice of imperial titles. The restoration
of Justinian II. by the help of Terbelis, the Bulgarian
chief and Roman " Caesar," need not detain us ; the
Armenian Vardan (afterwards Philippicus) is saluted
emperor at Cherson by an alliance of mutinous troops
and terrified citizens, — for Justinian had sent orders to
raze it to the ground and exterminate the inhabitants.
Justinian § 3. We must notice the secondary place of the

restored: Senate during the rule of Leontius the Isaurian,
revolutions of . ° ,t ~ . . A . ,. , T .. . .

711 71S Apsimar the Gotho-Greek and Asiatic, and Justinian s

APPENDIX 489

second brief reign of revenge. It exercises no influ- Justinian
ence on the changes in succession ; and it seems to ^.es^°^'nsof
have been coerced, like the rest of the representative 711, 713.
classes in the city, into raising funds for the equip-
ment of the expedition against Cherson. (Theoph. :
'lovcrriviavos . . . e^oTrX/o-a? crroXov TTO\VV . . . «TTO
Siavo/uirjs T&V OiKWVTWV Ttjv TToXfi/ crvyK\r]TiKti)v TC K.
epya(TTr)piaKwv K. SrjfJLOTwv K. TTCLVTOS 6(p<ptKiov. We shall
find these guilds of artisans mentioned again as con-
sulted by the sovereign, Leo IV., when he names his
little son Constantine as his successor in A.D. 776.)
Nicephorus, using and perhaps perverting the same
anonymous authority on which Theophanes de-
pended : €K T€ TWV CTTpaTlCOTlKCOV KaTaXoytoV €Tl $€ KOI

TOV yewpyiKOv K. TWV SavavcriKciov Teyvtnv TUIV TC e/c T^?
arvyicXriTov /3ov\rj$ K. TOV T^9 TroXeco? otf/uLov. The Senate
suffered severely along with the leaders of the army
from the anger of the restored exile (Theoph. :
avaptOfJLrjTOV TrX^Oo? GK re TOV TTO\ITIKOV K. TOV crTpaTtcoTiKov
KaTaXoyov aTTwXecrev. Zonaras slightly alters the sense,
in paraphrasing the common original which, as Bury
suggests, may well be the " acta " of the demes :

TTCtXv <$€ 7T\t]6o$ €K T6 TOV StJjU.OTlKOV K. TOV (TTpaTlCOTlKOV

Si€(f>0€ipev. The two terms are not synonymous, and
I prefer to keep the word TTO\ITIKOV for the higher
and official class.) When we pass to the next re-
volution which disposed of the incompetent and
luxurious Armenian, we have a curious instance shortsight of
both of the power and of the thoughtless shortsight military

f .1 -i-j. r '- mi ^i • • 11-11 conspirators.

of the military faction. The Obsicians blind and
depose Philippicus, but have taken no measure to
secure a successor ; and once more the august names
of the " Senate and People " are invoked to cover
the hasty selection of a chief secretary, Artemius, by
a determined minority, who still retained their pre-
sence of mind. It seems evident that Philippicus
favoured the civilian element at the expense of the
soldiers ; he celebrated his birthday by a public
festival and races, and by a banquet with the nobles

490 APPENDIX

Shortsight of (/ULCTOL TroXirwv ap^atoyevcov apia-Ttjcrai). It is also clear
^at ^e warri°r-faction took no steps to provide an
emperor ; for the first act of the new sovereign is to
blind and exile the sacrilegious authors of the crime
which raised him to power. We cannot doubt that
once more the palace-faction profited by the military
oversight, and got ready a candidate to be crowned
on Whitsunday ; Theoph. merely a-wpevOevros rov
Xaov e(V TY\V fj.eyaX*jv €KK\t](TLav e(TTe(j)6r] 'Apre/mio? 6 irpwro
acrtiKprJTis. Nicephorus somewhat more explicit, but
not more instructive : aOpourOelg 6 TJ?? TroXeco? dVa?
Sfjju.09 TTjOo? TO lepov . . . T€]m€vo$ avayopevovcriv etV /3aari\ea
'A.pT€ju.iov, QiXiTTTriKOv ypajuLjULaTco. TvyxavovTa, 01)9 777
'IraXajy <p(*)Vfl KoXovcnv acrqKptJTis. It is reserved for
Zonaras to display a precision which is suspicious ;
first, the guests of the monarch, as at the King's
dinner to the Jockey Club, are select nobles, or as
some aver, the winners in the day's races, xiv. 25,
Tivas TCOV r^? (rvyK\tfTOv TreTro/^ro, o>? S' evioi
rot'? ev TJJ ra>v lirirtAv ajuLiXX^ vucrjaravTas ; next,
he is killed, not by a discontented military faction of
Obsicians then stationed in Thrace, but by Senators ;
Trapa TLVWV TCOV TJJ? yepovcrias Karacr^eOe^ Tvcj)\ovTai :
lastly, the Senate and people elect and salute Ar-
temius (o/f re r^? (rvyK\i]Tov /3ov\fj$ K. 6 Srj/mwSr]? 0^X09),
changing his name (as was then the custom) to the
once unpopular designation of "Anastasius." It is
far more probable that the account of the earlier
historians is true ; it was a military rising against
a partially successful resumption of civilian sway.
Vardan neglected the army and ruled, as Nicephorus
tells us, without dignity or solicitude (aa-e/uLvto? K.
paOvjuLws). But the more crafty order made use of
the victory to score another civilian triumph in the
nomination of Artemius ; and it is to his credit first,
that he punished the authors of the revolution, and
next, that he gave all attention to the needs of national
defence. (Nic. : Si eVfyueXe/a9 ra 7roXe/xt/ca Trpce'y/xara
. apyovTOLs IKOLVOVS 7ry>o9 T«9 TOVTCDV SioiKqcrei? KaOlcmj.)

APPENDIX 491

§ 4. Once more is repeated the curious mutiny of Mutinous
troops, conscious of meriting censure. Once more
the " Obsicians " encourage themselves by throwing Theodosius
off authority, by refusing to join in the expedition IIL
against the Saracens. They kill the Minister of the
Exchequer, Deacon John, at Rhodes, and sail off
tumultuously to the capital. We may note as a sequel
to the Heraclian practice and precedent, the union
of sacred and profane offices, or the quest of trust-
worthy agents in the ranks of the clergy ; a-
says Theoph., TOV oidicovov 'Icoavvyv r?9
€KK\t](ria? TO TrjviKavTO. \oyo6eTtjv yevucov i
We are no little surprised at this strange mingling
or confusing of the functions of all three orders in
the State, — a deacon is treasurer and Commander-
in-chief ; nor is our wonder allayed when we find
the rebellious and unpatriotic regiment described as
headless (a.K€<pd\a)i> OVTCOV), and selecting at haphazard
when they put into Adramyttium the respectable
tax-collector who bears in history the name of
Theodosius III. (Theoph., eVX>}7rTOjOa rah/ SyjuLoa-icov
(popaov (the others, TrpaKTopa) . . . ctTrpdyjULovd re K.
iStwrrjv). (Here the verbal resemblance proves the
common source of both our clerical historians, Theo-
phanes and Nicephorus ; we may in passing notice
that the latter, aiming at a greater elegance of style,
replaces the colloquial phrase, TOV flacriXea dvea-KCt^av
( = cursed, dug up bones; see the Calopodian colloquy
before the " Nika " riots), by the more decorous
eSv<r<f)ri/uLovv.) For the second time, the capital was
exposed to Obsician ravage, sailors and soldiers
uniting in the pleasant duty of pillage, TOV vvv
says Zonaras, VOUTLKOV re K. <TTpaTi(0TiKov
TroXXa Ttov ev TCUS Qudoog ^jO^yttcmoy rjpTrdyrja-av. Perhaps
he is toning down the horrors of this military sack,
which displayed clearly the weakness of a purely
civil administration and a civil candidate; Theoph.
is more definite, ol Se Trapdvo/uiot \aol TOV 'O\f/-f/aou dju.a

TCOV LOTuOypaiKOW Tfl VVKTl 6/9 TOU? o'lKOV? T<*)V

492

APPENDIX

Mutinous
troops and
revolt under
Theodosius
HI.

Civilian
capital
defenceless
before new
military
concen-
tration.

juLeyicrTyv eipydcravro aXaxriv,
Anastasius II. assumes the monastic
garb at Nicaea, and is permitted to retire in safety to
Thessalonica. Such, then, was the issue of a sullen
and unpremeditated mutiny, without a leader and
without a policy. The story of the elevation of
Theodosius III. (trpos TrpayjmdTcov Sioucijcrtv K. Tavra
/3aa-i\€ia$ cr(f)6$pa aTro7re(j)vKu>$, Zonaras) recalls the
tumultuous and accidental success of Phocas; and
although nothing could be more opposed than the
characters of the two men, they have this much in
common. Both appeared as leaders of a military
faction at a moment when such a leader was
wanted ; and both were entirely incapable of fulfil-
ling their promise and their task. The loyalty of
the " Obsicians " melted away. Theodosius was left
confronted with a Senate who despised him ; and
as Maurice found an avenger in Heraclius, so more
speedily Conon the Syrian rose as general of the
Anatolics to punish not merely the dethroner of
Artemius, but the insolence of the West-Asiatic
faction.

§ 5. The capital is no less defenceless than Rome
found herself in the years following Nero's death.
Once more jealous regiments disputed between them-
selves the prize of victory and plundered the metro-
polis. Again, on the failure of a legitimate line, civil
rule disappeared in anarchy, and men welcomed the
first respectable plebeian from the East who came
to restore order; Leo III. is a second Vespasian.
It must be noted that the anti-imperial campaign of
the nobles either failed entirely or took on quite
another character. For the Senate gained nothing
by the final dethronement of Justinian II.; it was at
the mercy of the provincial regiments, and might
deem itself fortunate if these marauders had a
recognised leader. Gradually, an athletic and war-
like nobility, chiefly Asiatic, was supplanting the
earlier Civilians, the ap-^atoyevet^ who had long

APPENDIX 493

monopolised the safe seats in the official bureaux. Cimlian
It is perhaps possible to see in this period the revival S^,/m
of a " nationalist " spirit, at least an esprit de before new

corps among the legions quartered in certain dis- mtl^ary
M . . ., .r .. . ,. T concen-

tncts and recruited from the native population. I tration.

think, too, it is possible to convey a wrong im-
pression to the reader by using a word of such
precise meaning to modern ears. The new
" nationalism " was Obsician, Anatolic, or Armeniac,
not " Roman," Cappadocian, or even Armenian, — large
as is the part played by this last people who almost
engross the history of this eighth century. The
feuds of the legions last far into Isaurian annals.
The rebellion of Artavasdus, the brother-in-law of
Constantine V., is not merely a personal quarrel, but
a trial of force between two well-matched armies.
Justinian II. had combated the rising national
tendencies by his despotic policy of resettlement;
and Conon, who becomes Leo III., may claim to
represent Thrace, whither his parents were trans-
planted to Mesembria, as well as the distant Isauria
or Syria, their original home. Still we may trace the
Balkan influence, but it is perhaps fanciful to insist on
it. We know they had not been in their new home
long enough to have learnt Greek orthodoxy, letters,
or culture. The " Isaurian " house represents the
old Roman spirit ; it is " Byzantine " in its true and
proper sense, — practical, austere, warlike, and
Protestant, and it beats not without success against
the cage of dialectic pietism and civilian intrigue
which imprisoned the imperial figure. It was the
lack of strict nationality and consistent political
aim or intelligence which made the strong hand
from time to time welcome and indeed inevitable.
So to-day Parliaments tend to break up into group-
systems from the simple division of ministry and
opposition ; and it is in such conflict of petty interests
that the central power may possibly hope to recover
some of its lost rights and influence.

494

APPENDIX

Armeniacs

Obsician
influence

§ 6. The pretext for Conon's insurrection was
indignant support of the dethroned Anastasius II.,
who had appointed him and the young Armenian
Artavasdus to command the Anatolic and Armeniac
detachments. The real motive was a profound
scorn and hatred of the cowardly " Obsicians,"
a milder contempt for their nominee, and a
desire to fish in troubled waters. The condition
of affairs was indeed deplorable. Three times
since the first dethronement of Justinian had
the capital been exposed to the horrors of a
blockade, to the insults and pillage of victorious
besiegers.

Security reigned neither in the capital nor on the
frontier. The Arab armies were once more in the
heart of Asia Minor. The general of the Anatolics
had been in favour with Justinian ; he owed his
present post to Anastasius ; and he appeared as a
patriotic champion against the infidel, and as a
" restorer of the old paths." A formal meeting of
patriarch, Senate, and chief magistrates is convened
to decide upon the crisis. Theodosius himself pro-
poses the choice of Leo, and the tardy sanction of
the ministerial cabinet ratifies the clamour of the
Asiatic armies. There was no longer any pretence
of recalling the monk Artemius from his exile in
Thessalonica : and all classes united to welcome the
foreign general who promised to set a firm hand on
the helm. It is a point of idle or fanciful significance
which the clerkly writers do not forget, that the
Saracen army round Amorium were the earliest to
salute Leo emperor and to invite the city to join
in the shout : victim), says Theoph., eufaimeiv TOV
(TTpaTriyov Aeoyra ftaariXea Trapa.Ka\ovvT€$ K. TOV$ ecron
ravro 7roi€iv. It may be a prejudice of orthodox
historians to attribute the rise of this half-Mahometan
Protestant to the suggestion of the infidel, but the
narrative bears clear marks of authenticity. Through

APPENDIX 495

this alliance Maslema attempted to reduce the Armeniacs
Roman Empire (eiprjvevarat /ULGT' CLVTOV K. Si' CLVTOV Ttjv ™ S(£H(
'PcojuLctviav vTTOTa^ai). Leo gets possession of Theo- Obsician
dosius' son and puts him in irons with all his suite influence >.

/JLCTCL Tracrrjs Tt]$ paa-iALKrjg VTrovpyLOii? K. TCOV
ev T€\et avSpaov TOV 7ra\aTiov). With this precious
hostage he advances to Chrysopolis, and there takes
place the assembly noticed above (Theoph., yvov$
Se 6 0. TO. TTpa-^OevTa K. /SovXevcrdjmevos Yeppavov
TOV TraTpidp-^rjv K. T*JV arvyK\tjTOV . . . ey^eipil^eL avTtp
rrjv pa<Ti\€iav). Nicephorus represents the initiative
as coming from the Senate and such leaders of the
army as were in the capital : ravra (viz. the successes
of Maslema) /maOovTcs o7 re a-TparicoTiKol K
ofjO^oi/re? K. TY\V TOV 0. aireipiav K. o>9 OVK ucai/aft e
TO. TTpo? TOU9 TroXeya/of? dvTiKa6i<TTa<r9ai) e(f)i<TTavTai
avTw Trapaivovvres Ttjv /3a<Ti\elav TrapaiTycraorOai K.
a/3\a/3a)? iSicoTeva-ai. And the choice of Leo is made
(he seems to suggest) by voting: Erra e/? ^fjipov
v TOV /3aari\ev(rovTo$ ( = as to a successor)
A.€0)v o TraTpiKios. The general impression of
the crisis of 716-717 is well represented by the same
author a little earlier : 'J&irei ovv TTVKVCU TCOV

€7rava<TT(T€is eyevovTO K. rj Tvpavvis eKpaTei TO, re
flaariXelas K. rij? TroXew? KaTr]/me\€iTO K. SICTTITTTC
CTI /u.r]v K. fj TWV \6ya)v ^(pam^eTO Trato'evcris K. TO.
SteXveTo. Theophanes, too, in his second and better
narrative of the rise of Leo III. (where he actually
styles the hated Iconoclast 6 ev<re/3r]$ /3aa-i\evs) :
TJ/9 TWV 'PooyUcwW •7ro\iTela<5 crvyK€xyjU.€viis oi/V>;9 CK re
r?9 /3ap/3dptov €TnSpofJLrj^ K. CK TCOV TOV 'lovcrT. fJnaHpoviwv
K. TCOV TOV t&iXiTnriKov dvo<Tiovpyicov, OVTOS 6 A.CCOV
vTrepejULd^ci TW 'A^OTe/x/o), evavTiovjuicvos QeoSocriw. We
will leave the Senate humbled and sobered, con-
scious of the inefficacy of pure civilian rule ; the
Armeniacs and Anatolics triumphant at their success
over the Obsician candidate ; and the capital con-
fident in the new ruler. But abroad there is a

496 APPENDIX

Armeniacs general sense of anarchy and growing barbarism;

and^natolics polite ietters ancj official training have disappeared.

Obsician Even military discipline and the famous skill of

influence Roman tactics has gone; and the work of re-

' organisation has to be taken in hand afresh by the

Isaurian house.

INDEX

AARON, brother-in-law of Isaac Com-

nenus, 292
Aaron, Governor of Vasparacan,

44.2-3

Abasgi, Caucasian, 357
Abasgia : —

Fortress in, handed over to the

Empire, 264, 435
Imperial relations with, 40*7
Revolt of, 387
Status of, 436

Abastact, Theophylact (the Unbear-
able), 185 n. , 201, 417
Abbas, King of Kars, 419, 426
Abbas, Prince of Amasea, 455
Abbassides, Caliph, 114
Abdalmelik, Caliph ,389
Abderrahman, 374
Abel-Kharp, 435, 458-9, 462
Abou-Harp (? Abel-Kharp), Tchorto-

vanel son of, 426
Aboul Cassim, 466^, 467, 468
Aboulsewar, Emir of Dovin, 437-9,

444, 448
Abousahl, Prince of Sebaste, 452,

458

Absimarus. See Apsimar
Abulpharagius, cited, 234, 378, 388,

391, 398, 401, 421
Acacius, Governor of Armenia, 356
Achot. See Ashot
Adana (Cilicia), "Hill of Blood"

near, 230

Adolius, son of Acacius, 358
Adranasar (Aternerseh), Iberian

Prince, 412-13
Adranasar II., 414
Adrian, plot of, against Romanus I.,

210-11

Adrianople : —

Bulgarian seizure and loss of (925),

213
Disaffection of (eleventh century),

273.275-7

Adrinople : —
Bat tie of (832), 402
Identification of, 380, 460^.

Adscripticii (tvairdypafai), 148, 150

Aetius,398

Africa : —

Armenian soldiery in, 360, 361
Justin's reforms in, 73
Loss of, to the Empire, 335
War in (696), 101
VOL. II.

Agallianus, in

Agatha, daughter of Constantine VII. ,
223

Agathius, cited, 38, 351, 357

Agatho, Pope, 90

Agrarian tenure. See Land tenure

Agriculture, Imperial concern for (see
also Land tenure), 18

Akhal-Kalaki, 453

Akhlat, Emir of, 449

Alamundarus, 354-5

Alania, revolt of, 387

Alans in Imperial army, 364

Albania, Arab success in (seventh
century), 375

Alda, Queen of Abasgia, 264, 435

Aleppo, Bishop of, 241 n.

Aleppo, Emirs of, 244, 261, 467

Aleppo, Sultan of, 466 «.

Alexander, Emperor, 182, 195, 196

Alexander the Great, 349

Alexander the Logothete, 355

Alexius (Armenian), 185

Alexius Comnenus, Emperor, com-
missioned against Russell, 310-
ii ; John Ducas' relations with,
317 ; marriage, 317 ; troops under,
against Bryennius, 321 ; battle of
Calabrya (1077), 321-22 ; defeats
Basilacius,323; created S^SCKTTOS,
324 ; declines to serve against
Nicephorus V. , 328 ; adopted by
Empress Mary, 330; plotted
against by Borilas, 330 ; invested
by Isaac Comnenus, 331 ; suc-
cesses of, against the Turks,
465,468; Ariebus' plot against,
471 ; Diogenes' plot against,
472 ; proposal entertained by,
of establishing English colony
at Cibotus, 473 ; grants Antioch
to Boemund, 478 ; Gregory's
plot against (1107), 479; wel-
comes Baldwin's victim, 481-2 ;
successes against Turks from
Khorasan, 481 ; engagements
with Turks (1120), 482-3 ; cle-
mency of, 471, 472, 479 ; death
of, 483 ; otherwise mentioned,

314. 459

Alexius, Patriarch, 265, 268
Alexius Musel, 169, 170
Ali Pasha of Jannina, 323
Alim, Governor of Percrin, 264
2 I

498

INDEX

Almamun, Caliph, 172

Almansor, Caliph, 114

Amasea, 458, 459

Amazaspes, Governor of Armenia,
35.6.

Amerticius, 455

Amida, 353, 354

Ammianus, cited, 189

Amorian dynasty : —
Armenian alliance of, 176
Fall of, 175
Support accorded to, 342 n.

Amor him, Saracen siege of, 106-7, 494

Anakuph, 264

Anarchy, period of (695-717), 76

Anastasia, Empress- Mother, 91

Anastasius I., Emperor, respect of,
for law, 13 ; Chrysargyron abo-
lished by, 17, 18, 146, 263 n, ;
builds Dara, 354 ; deposition of,
25, 41 ; Laurentius* estimate of,
36 and tt.3; otherwise mentioned,
12, 14

Anastasius II., Emperor, accession
and policy of, 105, 489-90; de-
fensive preparations of, 109 ; re-
trenchment policy of, 119 ; Leo
III.'s attitude towards, 112, 494 ;
retirement of, 106, 492 ; execution
of, 112

Anastasius, Prefect of the city, 268

Anastasius. Questor, 72

Anastasius, quoted, 91; cited, 380

Anatolics : —

Influence of, 274, 485, 487, 494-5
Mutiny of, 89-90

Anazarbus, 477

Anchialus, Duke of, 468

Andrassus, Saracen defeat at, 228

Andreas, 379-80

Andrew the Scythian, 184-5

Andrioun (? Adrinople), 460 and n.

Andronicus I., 304

Andronicus, son of John Ducas, 305,

317

Anemas, 228
Anemas, Bardanes, 401
Angeli, policy of, 297 n.1
Angyrines the Armenian, 185
Ani (Camakh) :—

Arslan's sack of (1064), 453-4

Chusan's capture of, 391

Loss of, to the Empire, 469

Othman's seizure of, 388

Patriotic centre, as, 472

Seljuk assault of (1055), 448 ; Seljuk
rule, 459

Surrender of, to the Empire, 429-30 ;

final cession, 438
Anna, daughter of Leo III., 113
Anna, mother of the Comneni, 305,

3°7. 317
Anne, daughter of Alexius Charon,

294
Anne, daughter of Romanus II., 207,

234

Antaxias, Governor of Armenia, 349

Anthemisia, 117

Anthes, 240

Antichrist, Procopius cited on reign

of, 45-6
Antigonus, 167
Antioch —

Burtzes' success against, 236
Crusaders' capture of, 474
Siege of (966) , 230-1
Turkish acquisition of, 466 n. , 470
Antioch, Duchy of —

Boemund's acquisition of, 475, 478
Imperial allegiance of, maintained,

464

Antioch, title of Duke of, 447
Antony, Mark, 349
Apambas, Marianus, 420
Apirat, Prince in Mesopotamia, 480
Apolasar, Prince of Taron, 480
Apoughan, 411
Apsilians, 357

Apsimar (Absimarus — Emperor Ti-
berius III)., loi, 105, 112, 488
Araates, 401
Arabs (see also Saracens) —

Advent of (seventh century), 373-5
Hostilities against, 92, 109-10
Ravagers, not empire-makers, 375,

376

Vassals of, 407
Aratius (Hrahad), 361
Araventan, 482

Arcadius, Emperor, relations of, with
Persians, 351 ; prefecture under,
35-6 ; mentioned, 38, 47
Archaeopolis, 387
Archamouni, 448
Ardashir (Artaxerxes), 360
Ardashir (Exedarus), 349
Ardashir, Constantine, commander of

Thracians, 397
Arethas, King of the Ghassanid Beda-

wins, 355
Ard-Shont, 372
Argistis II., 348 n.
Argyrus (Son of Mel), Prince of Bari,

272, 276

Argyrus, Basil, 429, 434
Argyrus, Eustathius, 185 «., 210,

410

Argyrus, Leo (c. 850), 410
Argyrus, Leo (c. 921), 201, 210, 212
Argyrus, Marianus, 219, 224
Argyrus, Pothus, 212, 224
Argyrus, Romanus (tenth century),

20 1, 202
Argyrus, Romanus (eleventh century).

See Romanus III.
Argyrus family, emergence of, 410
Ariebus, 471
Aristocracy —

Hostility of, towards the Govern-
ment, 10

Triumph of, over central power in
seventh century, 94-7

INDEX

499

Armenia —

Arab successes against (seventh cen-
tury). 374-5

Byzantine sphere of influence in,
337-8

Capital of, removed to Toukhars,
384. See also Ani

Chinese colonies in, 352 «.

Christianising of, 337, 345-6

Church of —

Council of Chalcedon repudiated

by, 338, 372, 377
Four patriarchates of, 470
Isolated position of, 338-9, 346,

372, 415, 419-20, 451-2
Persecution of, under Basil II.,

423

Poverty and ignorance of, 462
Constans III.'s policy regarding,

376-8
Disappearance of native race in,

462
Division of Greater Armenia

among great princes, 182
Divisions of (tenth and eleventh

centuries), 336
Fiscal exactions of Justinian as

affecting, 355-6

Earthquake in (early twelfth cen-
tury), 481

Imperial influence in (400 and 600
A.D.), 337; treatment by Hera-
cliads, 379 ; Imperial relations
(1042), 433

Khazar pillage of, 381
Magister Militum appointed for,

Mohammed's massacre in (705),

385-6
Monks in flight from (end of eleventh

century), 472

Parthian relations with, 349
Partition of, first (385), 350
Prosperity of, under Persian sway,

358 n.

Revolt of, against Seleucid mon-
archy (318-285 B.C.), 349
Saracen influence in (650), 337
Saracen raiding in (576), 365
Summary of conclusions regarding,

341-2
Summary of events in, following

637, 383-4
Suzerainty of Rome universal in,

4.17
Tributary to Caliphate, 376, 379,

381 ; complete submission, 389,

406
Vacillation of, between Rome and

Damascus, 383-6
Armeniacs —

Anti-Hellenism of, 125-6
Connotation of term, 390
Constantine VI. 's relations with,

397
Influence of, 274, 487, 494-5

Armeniacs (continued]
Mutiny of, 340

Reconstitution of, after 790, 128
Armenian dynasty. See Isaurian
Armenian strain, increase of, among
upper classes under Constantine
V., 117
Armenians —

Annihilation of, plotted (1052), 446
Army recruited from, 344, 357-8
Attitude of, towards the Empire,

414

Characteristics of, 347 and n.1
Cilicia an asylum for (eleventh cen-
tury), 458, 462
Conspiracies by, 360-1
Crusaders, relations with, 473-4,

481-2

Disappearance of, in Armenia, 462
Distrust of, at Court, 446
Influence of, in Imperial Society
and Government, 339, 344-5,
386, 493

Insurgence of, 117, 125, 144, 166;
zenith of, 236 ; rise of the great
families in Basilian period, 184-5
Names common among, 361
Nicephorus' bodyguard of, 230
Non-Oriental character of, 347 n.1
Normans compared with, 448-9
Origin of, 346-7

Pro-Roman and Anti-Roman, 407
Turkish alliances of, 448, 449, 452,

467

Zoe's alliance with, 199-200
Arms —

Carrying of, by private persons

prohibited, 61-2
Manufacture of, a state monopoly,

61 «.3
Army —

Armeniacs, see that heading
Armenian attitude towards, 341-2
Armenian recruitment of, 344, 357-8
Basil's reform of, 181
Constantine X. , under, 277
Constantine XI., under, 299
Efficiency of, in crusading era (620-

730), 152

" Immortals, corps of, 321
Irene's policy regarding, 126
Justinian's attitude towards, 63 and

n.*

Macedonian troops, 291, 313, 315
Maurice's relations with, 63, 75
Mercenary troops, recourse to, in

tenth century, 133
Monks, soldiers at feud with, 132
"Nationalist" spirit in corps of,

493
Native levies largely composing

(end eleventh century), 315
Obsicians. See that heading
Palace officials joined with military

commanders, 186
Pay and pension of, 154

500

INDEX

Army (continued) —

Provincial regiments (thematic
system)—

Disintegrating effect of, 125
Rise of ,342, 485,487
Thematic system, transition

from, 131-3
Recruitment of —

Armenians, by, 344, 357-8
Classes selected for, 162
Regency in military hands, period

of, 205-6
Revolutions by (713), 104-5 I (7J6).

105 ; (718), 106-8
Romanus II., under, 227
Slave-troops, 366
Starving of, by civilian regime,

454-6
Thematic system. See sub-heading

Provincial regiments
Traitors' sons promoted in, 409
Arsaber (Arshayir), 128, 340-1
Arsaces III., King of Armenia, 350
Arsaces, kinsman of Artabanus, 360
Arsacid dynasty —
Beginning of, 349
Influence of, on Armenia, 336-7
Sassanid hostility against, 346
Transfer of Imperial Sovereignty to

(867), 178 et seq.
Arsamosata, 391
Arsenius the Patrician, 210
Arshavir (Arsaber) rebellion of (808),

128, 340-1
Arshavir, 404

Arslan, Alp, aggressive policy of, 453
et seq ; seizes Manzikert (1071),
457; Danishmand opposed to
(1092-1106), 466 n.
Artaban, 349, 360-1
Artaban, 408
Artasyras, 444
Artavasdus defeated by Antony (30

B.C.), 349
Artavasdus, General of the Anatolics,

392
Artavasdus, General of the Arrne-

niacs, 494

Artavasdus (son-in-law of Leo III.),
nationality of, 335, 340 ; revolt of
(742), 112-13, 390, 493 ; signi-
ficance of support given to, 125
Artemius. See Anastasius II.
Artisans, guilds of, 489
Arzanene, 350, 353, 360, 366
Arzrunian dynasty in Vasparacania,

336

Arzrunian family, genealogy of, 169

Ashot (Ashod) family, 338

Ashot (Asot), Armenian Prince, 199

Ashot I., Bagratid King (ninth cen-
tury), 335, 408, 410

Ashot II., 413

Ashot (Achot) III., 235, 236, 421,
422

Ashot, King of Tachir (d. 1038), 430

Ashot (Achot), Prince of Taron,

240

Ashot, Prince of Vasparacan, 406
Ashot, son of David, 370
Ashot, son of Gregory, 425
Ashot, son of John (grandson of

Gagic), 462

Ashot, son of Sembat, 368
Ashot the Bagratid (7684), 381
Ashot the Iron, 414
Asolik cited, 375, 378, 381, 421, 424
Aspar, 14
Aspet, the (general of Alexius),

476-8

Aspet, title of, 476-7
Assyria, early events regarding, 348

and n.
Astolf, 114
Athingans, 402
Athos, monks of, 136
Atom, King of Sebaste, 432, 452,

453, 458, 475
Avar Campaigns, 369-70 ; the Avar

Khan, 351
Axumites, 357

BAANES, 92

Babec, 404, 469

Bacouran (Pacurian), 330, 468

Bagdad, Byzantine operations against

(?74). 235-6
Baghin, 446, 453
Bagrat, Duke, at Ani, 454
Bagrat, King of Iberia and Abasgia,

426, 434, 443
Bagrat IV. of Iberia, 307
Bagrat of Taron, 415
Bagrat (supporter of Crusaders), 474
Bagratid dynasty, 335-6
Bahram (Varanes), 364, 367, 368
Bahram (Varanes), Generalissimo of

Armenia, 428, 431, 439-40
Bakhtiar of Bagdad, 235-6
Baktage, 113
Balas (Valasch), King of Persia, 352,

363
Baldwin (founder of principality at

Edessa), 473

Baldwin of Edessa, 477, 480-2
Balkans—

Imperial line from, 14, 19, 486
Revolt in, against Michael VII.,

3H
Romanus I.'s policy regarding,

213-14

Balounians, 372
Barbarism, relapse into (sixth and

seventh centuries), 119-20
Bardanes (Vardan), " Emperor,"

127-8, 373-4
Bardanes (Vardan), Emperor Philip-

picus, 102-4, 112
Bardanes (Vartan) the Mamigonian,

398-400

Bardas (brother of Sembat), 409
Bardas (grandson of Burtzes), 482-3

INDEX

501

Bardas (son of Cordylus), 408

Bardas (Vard) (571), 363

Bardas Caesar, genealogy of family
of, 169 ; influence of, 170-1 ;
murder of, 174, 409 ; estimate
of, 172, 173 ; otherwise men-
tioned, 220, 407

Bardzerberd fort, 463

Barkiarok, Sultan, 471, 475 «.2, 477

Barsames, Governor of Edessa, 467,
469

Barsegh (Barsel, Basil), Patriarch,
463, 470

Barshegh (Basil) , Governor of Edessa,
467

Basil, origin of name, 439 n.

Basil I., Emperor, ancestry of, 166,
177, 341, 400, 407-8 ; position of,
under Michael III., 170, 174;
murders Michael, 408 ; accession
of, 178 ; relations of, with Ashot
I., 408-9; relations with the
Senate, 178-9 ; coronation of,
179 ; position of, as Emperor,
141-2; relations with the Church,
151 ; domestic reforms of, 180-1 ;
army reform of, 181 ; foreign
policy of, 181 ; receives homage
of Curticius, 409 ; last days of,
183-4 ; estimate of, 408 ; estimate
of reign of, 140 ; family of, 182 ;
astuteness of, 172 ; credulity of,
196 ; otherwise mentioned, 144,

417

Basil II. (Bulgaroctonus), Emperor,
vigorous initiative of, 139, 239,
243 ; in the Bulgarian wars,
243-4, 248-9, 251-2 ; relations
of, with Romanus Sclerus, 245 ;
persecutions by, in Armenia,
423 ; Armenians transplanted by,
424 ; annuls his persecuting
policy, 426 ; Great Durbar (991),
426-7; adopts David of Vas-
paracan, 428 ; success of, against
Georgia, 429 ; proposed sur-
render of Ani to, 429-30 ;
agrarian policy of, 146, 154 ;
ecclesiastical policy of, 159 ;
fiscal policy of, 249 ; Bulgarian
policy of, 200 ; policy of, re-
viewed, 254-5 : northern frontier
of, 274 ; court of, 294 ; Armenian
officers of, 425 ; unpopularity of,
139; estimate of, 233, 245, 249-
50, 253-4, 279, 424 ; leniency
and magnanimity of, 246, 248 ;
simplicity and valour of, 277;
Novels of, cited, 154 ; otherwise
mentioned, 202, 209, 219, 232

Basil the Bird, revolution against
Romanus I. instigated by, 211,
218 ; influence of, 222 ; insurrec-
tion of, against Romanus II.,
224-5 ; madness and death of, 225

Basil the Chamberlain (son of Re ma-

nus I.), influence of, 219 ; success
of, against Saracens, 227 ; sup-
ports Nicephorus, 229 ; Cilician
property of, 237 ; policy of,
on death of Zimisces, 238-9,
241 ; disgraced, 244, 253-4

Basil the child (Camsar Prince),
481

Basil, Drungaireof Cibyrrhaeot theme,
227

Basil the Patrician, Duke of Edessa,

447
Basil the Robber, Prince of Kesoun,

463, 464, 476, 477, 480
Basilacius (Vasilatzes), Nicephorus,

313, 458; rebellion of, 323-4,

460

Basilian Code, 163
Basilicinus (Basiliskianus), 175, 179
Basiliscus, Admiral, 12, 25
Basiliscus, Commandant of Malatiya,

245

Basilitza, 196
Batazes, 276

Batazes, John, 276 and n.z
Bazouni, Prince of Lambron, 474
Belisarius, 354, 355, 358, 445
Belonas, Theodorus, 223
Benedict IX., Pope, 183
Ber, King of Georgian Abasgians,

419. 436
Bergri, 432
Birth, claims to power not constituted

by. 9

Bishops. See under Church
Boemund, 475, 477; infeudation of,

464, 478

Bogas, John, 202
Boilas, Bardas, 210-11, 418
Boi'las the jester, plot of, 278
Boisthlabos, Stephen, 271
Bokhtiar, 422

Borilas, 319-20, 322, 324, 330, 332

Boris, King, 235

Botaneiates, Nicephorus. See Nice-
phorus Phocas

Branas (Varaz), Nicolas, 468

Bringas, rivalry of, with Nicephorus,
228-9, 420 ; overthrow, banish-
ment and death of, 219, 230

Brosset, M., cited, 410-11

Bryennius, John, 313-15

Bryennius, Nicephorus (1054), pro-
posed as successor to Constantine
X. , 280 ; insurgence and failure
of, 290-1

Bryennius, Nicephorus (1077), created
Duke of Bulgaria and commis-
sioned against Serbs and Slavs,
312 ; suspected, 313 ; assumes
the purple, 314 ; negotiations of,
with Nicephorus III., 320-1 ;
defeated at Calabrya, blinded,
and honoured by Nicephorus
III., 322; murders John, 322

Buccelin, 361

502

INDEX

Bulagud (Hungarian Prince), 224

Bulgaria-
Basil II. 's policy regarding, 200
Revolt of, against Michael IV.,

266

Russian invasion of (967), 231-2
Vassalage of, 237
Zoe's policy regarding, 199-200

Bulgarians, hostilities with—

Basil II.'s exploits, 243-4, 248-9,

251-3 .

Constantine V.'s victory (763), 115
Eighth century raiding, 103, 106,

109-10

Ninth century wars, 185, 188, 413
Revolt against Michael VII., 311
Tenth century wars, 212
Thomas the Slav routed, 129
Bullionism, 157, 166, 176
Buraphus, George, 104-5
Bureaus, Byzantine, organisation of,

Burtzes at Antioch, 230-1, 236;
created Duke of Antioch, 239 ;
declares for Sclerus, 240 ; goes
over to Imperialists, 241 n., 242
Bury, Professor, cited, n, 39, 58 «.,
71, 88, 116, 118, 157 n., 165,
289 »., 351, 357, 489; quoted,
73 ; estimate ot, 289 «.
Butelinus, 69
Byblos, 374 ».

Byzantine Emperors. See Emperors
Byzantine Empire. See Empire
Byzantine spirit, characteristics of,

220

Byzantium (Constantinople) —
College at, for officials, n
Comnenian sack of (1081), 331-2
Mahometan siege of ( ? 680), 90
Siege of (718), in

CABADAS, King of Persia, 351-3
Cabalaca (Cabala) capital of Albania,

375

Caballinus, Constantine, 174
Cabasilas, Constantine, 269
Cabasilas, Nicolas, 432, 439
Cabbelias, 382
Caesarea, siege of, 378
Caesarism —

Hereditary character cf, 35 n.

Popular character of, 50-2
Calabrya, battle of (1077), 321, 472
Callinicum, battle of, 355
Cailinicus, Patriarch, 94
Colocyres, 231
Camakh. See Ani
Campanares, Prefect of the city, 268
Camulianus, Theodore, 397
Camyzes, Eustachius, 481
Cancaaus, 361
Cantacusen, 476

Capital, investments for, 157 and n.
Capital, the, schemes for removal of,
96

Capitalists, State attitude towards,
1 6 1-2

Carantenus, Constantine, 262

Carantenus, Nicephorus, 263

Carantenus, Theodorus, 241

Carbeas, 136, 173

Carin, 448, 451

Caristerotzes, General of the Armen-
iacs, 392

Caste system, 149-50

Castration as condition of preferment,
261

Catacalon (c. 1077), 'at Calabrya, 321

Catacalon, Leo (c. 930), 138, 185, 215,
416

Catacecaumenus, Catacalon, seizes
Patriarch Peter, 438-9; assists
Aaron the Bulgar, 442 ; defeated
by Patzinaks, 445 ; created Duke
of Antioch, 447; slighted by
Michael VI., 290; joins Com-
nenus, 291-3; mentioned, 449

Catacecaumenus, Catacalon (second),
472

Cathari, 173

Catharine II., of Russia, 265

Catherine, wife of Isaac Comnenus,

294

Celer the Illyrian, 353-4
Central authority, aggrandisement

of, 3, 21 ; centralising tendency

under Justinian, 47-8
Cerularius, Michael, Patriarch, 293-4

and n. , 296

Chages, Constantine, 266, 272
Chaldia, Seljuk pillage of (1055), 448
Chamich, Father, quoted, 340-1
Chan oranges, 361
Charles Martel, in, 118, 156
Charon, Alexius, 294
Chatatures, 305

Chazes, Governor of Achaea, 200
Cherina, John, 224
Cherson : —
Justinian II.'s expedition against,

102-3, 488

Khazar alliance with, 103, 112
Theophilus' policy towards, 181,

407

China, analogy from vassals of, 412-13
Chinese colonies in Armenia, 352 n.
Chlorus, Constantius, cited, 21
Choerosphactes, 320
Chosroes the Great, of Armenia, 350
Chosroes, King of Persia, 37, 355,

363-5

Chosroes II., 367, 368-70
Chosroes III. of Persarmenia, 350
Christopher, Emperor, 168, 204, 208
Chrysargyron , abolition of, by Anas-

tasius I., 17, 18, 146, 263 n.
Chrysochir, 181
Church, Eastern : —
Armenian converts to, 337
Armenian relations with. See under

Armenia, Church of

INDEX

503

Church, Eastern (continued) —
Basil I. , the puppet of, 151
Bishops, civil duties of — under
Justinian, 58-9 and nn. ; in
Iconoclastic period, 122 ; appeal
to bishops in civil suits, 55 »A
See also Clergy

Central power supreme against, 74 ;
opposed by (in seventh century),

Clergy. See that heading
Constans' attitude towards, 88-9
Constantine the Great's attitude

towards, 3, 58, 89
Constantine IV.'s attitude towards,

89
Counterpoise to central power of

State, 124, 155, 164-5
Democratic affinities of, in Icono-

clastic period, 122
Exarchate overthrown (eighth cen-

tury), 113, 114

Hellenic spirit represented by, 345
Heraclius' attitude towards, 85, 339
Justinian's attitude towards, 357
Justinian II. 's attitude towards,

95-7
Imperial relations with, since Con-

stantine, 123-4
Influence of, in Heraclian period,

119-22 ; after defeat of Icono-

clasm, 164

Isaac I.'s relations with, 295-6
Leo III.'s attitude towards, in,

118, 122-3
Monasteries founded by, charac-

teristics of, 120
Monks. See that title
Nicephorus' exactions from, 231
Statesmen prelates of, 373
Pauperising tendency of (sixth cen-

tury), 42

Patriarchs. See that heading
Western Church compared with,

120, 124
Chusan, 391
Cilicia—

Armenian remnant in, 376, 458, 462
Seljuk war with Armenian kingdom

(1107), 477

Civic position, rank based on, 9
Civic riot, period of, 41-2
Civil Service —

Basil I. supported by, 178

Career in, 26

Decline of, in sixth century, 19 ;

later decay, 80-1, 140
Development of (285-337), 5
Fees payable on institution to

office in, 56

Founder and patrons of, imperial, i
Isaac I., thwarted by, 295, 297 «.*
Justinian II. hostile to, 91
Military party, rivalry with, 342,

343 »
Official

ials of. See Civil Servants

Civil Service (continued] —

Pre-eminence of, in 5th century.g-n

Recruitment of, 162

Training for, n, 16, 26

Triumph of, over central power in

seventh century, 95-7
Civil Servants —

Checks on, 58-9 and nn.

College for, n, 16

Distrust of, by prince and people,

55 «-4

Estates of, law regarding, 153-4
Increase in numbers and position

of. 3i. 53-4
Lesser Agents —

Efforts to control, 16-18, 32
Misdemeanours amongst, 53-7
Ministerial departments in control

of, 20
Priests and warriors contrasted

with, 119

Provincial governors. See that title
" Senators " a title of, 5
Civilian spirit, period of, zenith and

decline of, 7-8
Classical state, ideal of, 3-5
Cleopatra, 349
Clergy. See also Bishops —

Civil officers chosen from among,

491

Feudal champions hated by, 343 n.
Impatience of, with ordinary life, 120
Influence of, during Heraclian

period, 119
Clerical patronage in Anglican

Church, 30
Colonia, 358

Commodus, Emperor, 4, 176
Communal villages, 145-8, 150
Comne, 294

Comnena, Anna, cited, 475, 477
Comneni —

Estimate of, 294, 297 w.1
Triumph of (1081), 231-2, 294;

significance of, 465
Comnenus, Alexius. See Alexius
Comnenus, Isaac (Duke of Antioch),
created Z^SCKTTOS, 328 ; invests
Alexius as Emperor, 331
Comnenus, Isaac, Emperor. See

Isaac I.
Comnenus, John (brother of Isaac),

163, 292, 294, 300, 450
Comnenus, Manuel, Prefect of the

East, 242, 294

Comnenus, Manuel (1070), 457
Comnenus, Nicephorus, Governor of

Vasparacan, 257, 429
Constans II. or III., Emperor (Con-
stantine III.), proclamation of,
quoted, 87-8 ; policy of, regarding
Armenians, 376-8 ; financial ac-
tivities of, 118 ; conspiracy ending
reign of, 112 ; assassination of,
380; otherwise mentioned, 160,
340, 379

504

INDEX

Constantia, battle of, 366

Constantine the Great, Emperor, atti-
tude of, towards the Church, 3,
58, 89 ; policy of, 20 ; prefecture
under, 34-5 ; indifference of, to-
wards Rome, 88

Constantine II. (Constantius), Em-
peror, 189, 235

Constantine III. See Constans

Constantine IV., Emperor, hostility
of, to clerical feudalism, 89 ; Im-
perial prestige under, 90 ; brothers
associated with, 90 ; otherwise
mentioned, 85, 379, 381, 487

Constantine V., Emperor, accession
of, 113! marriage of, 168 ; de-
mands Pepin's daughter for his
son, 115 ; transplantations by,
391 ; vigorous initiative of, 150 ;
hostility of, to ecclesiasticism, 88 ;
achievements of, 98 ; events of
reign of, summarised, 113-15 ;
inconsistent records of reign of,
116-17; general recovery under,
116-18; transition period of the
Empire under, 117; plague dur-
ing reign of, 144; death of, 115;
otherwise mentioned, 335, 339,

489. 493

Constantine VI., Emperor, con-
spiracies against, 125, 392 ;
Thomas the Slav taken for, 129 ;
disappointment and deposition
of, 396 ; treatment of Mouschegh,
340, 396-7 ; final dethronement
of, 397; uncles of, 125-6, 392;
otherwise mentioned, 171, 368

Constantine VII. (Porphyrogenitus),
Emperor, illegitimacy of, 172 ;
rumoured plot against, 196;
'claims to reign alone, 203 ; pro-
motes Romanus, 204 ; marriage
with Helena, daughter of Ro-
manus, 204 ; restoration of, under
will of Romanus, 212 ; death of,
224 ; popularity of, 141, 218 ;
estimate of, 220-3 1 estimate of
reign of, 194, 218; regulations
of, as to imperial marriages,
168, 324 n. ; policy regarding
the provinces, 221-2 ; Armenian
policy, 414; bargain with the
Emir of Edessa, 420; cited, 185,
192 ; novels of, cited, 154

Constantine VIII., Emperor, over-
throws his father, 211 ; imprison-
ment and death of, 212, 219;
mentioned, 208, 419

Constantine IX., Emperor, palace
restraints on, 239; with Basil
against the pretenders, 246 ;
method of life of, 254 ; death of,
259 ; estimate of, 257 ; ministers
of, 256 ; public events of reign of,
258; otherwise mentioned, 165,
209, 210, 430

Constantine X. (Monomachus), Em-
peror, marriage of, with Zoe,
270 ; relations with Scleraena, 271 ;
273 ; alliance of, with Arabs, 437 ;
Armenian policy of, 236, 438 ;
arbitrates between Liparit and
Bagrat, 443; treatment by, of
Princes of Arkni, 446 ; union
with Alan princess, 279 ; sends
Bryennius against the Turks,
291 ; ill-health of, 264, 282 ;
estimate of, 270, 271, 279, 283-6 ;
estimate of reign of, 271 ; plots
during reign of, 271 et seq ', civil
ministers of, 279-81 ; favourite of,
284 ; otherwise mentioned, 296,
307, 444

Constantine XI. (Ducas), Emperor,
imprisoned by Michael IV. , 265 ;
named successor to Isaac Com-
nenus, 297; relations with Isaac,
298 n.; summons Armenian
patriarch, 451 ; dealings of, with
Nicephoritzes, 307 ; declining
health of, 300 ; estimate of, 298-
300, 343 n.; mentioned, 455

Constantine XII., Emperor, sent
against Romanus, 304-5 ; sent
against Bryennians, 314 ; rela-
tions of, with Alexius, 317 ; pays
homage to Botaneiates, 319 ;
rebels against him, 325 ; men-
tioned, 304

Constantine XIII., Emperor, 324,

330-1
Constantine I., King in Cilician

Armenia, 474 and «., 477
Constantine Archoclines, 270
Constantine, son of Burtzes, 257
Constantine, son of Reuben, 463
Constantine, son of Thoros, 482
Constantine (Chamberlain of Zoe),

198, 203, 204, 211

Constantine the Paphlagonian (No-
bilissimus), 261, 265, 267-9, 434>
439

Constantinople. See Byzantium
Constitutions of Justinian, cited, 50,

66 ; estimate of, 33
Consular largess, 61 and n.1
Consulate, abolition of, by Justinian,

17, 48

Contostephanus, 251
Contract, freedom of, replacing caste

system, 150-1
Cordova, estimate of, 259
Cordylus, 408

Corippus, Creseonius, cited, 72, 361
Cositar fort, 463
Cosmas, revolt of (eighth century),

Cosmas the Postmaster (tenth cen-
tury), 211

Court Chamberlain, influence of, 12
Credit system, absence of, in Byzan-
tine Empire, 157

INDEX

505

Crete, 227, 228, 403

Cricorice, 412

Criminal law of Byzantine Empire,
comparison of, with modern
codes, 163 ; with eighteenth cen-
tury codes, 1 86

Crinitas, Theodorus, 220, 231

Crispin (Norseman), 303-4, 308

Crum's ravages, 408

Crusaders, 473-4, 481-2

Ctenas, 192

Curcuas, suggested identity of, with
Gourgenes, 409, 420

Curcuas, John, Captain of the
Hicanates, 186-7, 409, 417

Curcuas, John, the younger, arrests
Theodorus, 205 ; defeats plot of
Adrian and Tazates, 210 ;
achievements of, in the East,
404, 416-18 ; long control by,
of Eastern frontier, 214-16, 409-
10 ; successes of.against Russians,
214, 418 ; plotted against and
cashiered, 418-19; restored to
favour, 222

Curcuas, Romanus (cousin of John
Zimisces), 229, 418, 420

Curcuas, Theophilus, 214-15, 418

Curial colleges, 344

Curial system, 146, 149, 162

Curopalat —
Armenian Governor so styled, first,

Division of office of, 450
Erroneous chronicle regarding title

of, 228

Status of, 113, 182, 359
Curt, Bulgarian King, 425
Curticius (Armenian), 185
Curticius (brigand chief), 409
Curticius (Macedonian - Armenian —

eleventh century), 323, 328, 460
Curticius, Manuel (Armenian, tenth

century), 211, 219, 241, 423
Curupas, Emir of Candia, 228
Cutulmish, brother of Togrul, 447
Cutulmish, cousin of Togrul, 441
Cyprus, 185, 230

Cyriac. Patriarch (seventh century), 79
Cyriacus, Patriarch (eleventh cen-
tury), 430

DALASSENA, Anna (mother of the

Comneni), 305, 307, 317
Dalassenus, Constantine, 259, 265,

270

Damascus, siege of (634), 373
Damianus (chamberlain), 170
Damianus (Drungaire of the Watch),

199

Danielis, 144

Danishmand, 466 »., 475 w.2, 480
Daphnopates, Theodorus, 224
Dara, 354, 368
Dardanian Emperors, prefecture

under, 37

David III. (the Restorer), King of

Georgia, 472, 483
David (son of Sennacherib), King of

Sebaste, 427, 428, 432
David, Prince of Taik, 423, 425
David, son of Gagic, 459, 462
David the Saharhounian, 370-3
David Kilig Arslan I., 471, 472
David Lackland, Bagratid King in

Albania, 431, 434,453
David Tiberius III., Emperor, 87
Death sentence, infrequency of, 163-4
Demes, influence of, in seventh cen-
tury, 80
Demetrius, Prince of Anakuph, 264,

435
Democracy of Byzantine Empire,

59-60, 167
Deputies, Justinian's abolition of, 56

and n.3

Deren, Constable of Persia, 364
Despotic States, popular voice in,

80, 223, 235-6

Diehl cited, 39 n., 58 n.', quoted, 73
Diocletian, Emperor, 7, 10, 108
Diogenes, Constantine, Governor of

Sirmium, 25$, 260
Diogenes, Romanus. See Romanus

IV.

Diogenes, son of Romanus, 472
Divination, 409

Djabalas, Ghassanid King, 398
Dobrouni, 325
Domentziolus, 367, 370
Domestic of the Schools, title of, 219,

394
Dominicus, Captain of the Foreign

Legion, 199
Domitian, Bishop, 368
Domitian, Emperor, 40 n.1
Dorotheus, 354-5
Dovin —

Burning of, by Mohammed (705),

386

Sack of, by Arabs (640), 375
Situation of, 358 n.
Ducange cited, 420
Ducas, Andronicus (ninth century),

190
Ducas, Andronicus (tenth century),

241
Ducas, Andronicus (eleventh century),

3°S

Ducas, Constantine (912), relations
of, with Samonas, 189-90 : failure
and death of, 197-9, 298 ; Pre-
tender claiming to be, 202-3

Ducas, Constantine, Emperors. See
Constantine XI. and Constantine
XII.

Ducas, Irene, 317

Ducas, John, the Caesar, returns from
Bithynia, 304; decides for the
Comnenian dynasty, 306; rela-
tions with Nicephoritzes, 307 ;
retires to Bithynia, 308 ; expedi-

506

INDEX

tion of, against Russell, 308-9 ;
proclaimed Emperor, 309 ; im-
prisoned,ransomed, and banished
to monastery, 310 ; relations with
Alexius, 317; attitude towards
Botaneiates, 319 ; supports in-
surrection of Alexius, 330-1

Ducas, Nicolas, 198, 201, 202

Ducas, Stephen, 198

Ducas family, 184 n.

Duel, first, in Byzantine history,
257-8

Duke, title of, 239, 438

Dyrrachium, battle of, 469

Dzophk (Tzophk), fortress of, 474, 480

EARTHQUAKE in Armenia, 481

Ecloga of Isaurian Emperors, 161,
164

Economic fallacies, 157

Edessa—-

Baldwin's principality at, 473
Crusaders welcomed by, 473
Miraculous veil of, 416
Sieges of, 452-3
Tribute of, 263 and n.
Turkish acquisition of (1087), 469-
70

Edessa, Patriarch of, 470

Egypt-
Michael IV. 's treaty with, 266
Theoctistus' success against, 263

Eladas, John, 197, 198

Eladicus, 198

Elective monarchy, 99-100

Eleutherius, Exarch, 371, 377, 394

Elmacin cited, 394

Elmout, 451

Emilianus, Patriarch of Antioch, 318-

Emir, application of title, 466 ».
Emir-al-Omra, office of, 422
Emperors, Byzantine —
Alien princes, courteous attitude

towards, 428, 438
Assessors in law courts, as, 221
Balkan peninsula, from, 14, 19, 486
Dardanian, prefecture under, 37
Efficiency of, 441
Generosity of, in relief of distress,

263
Hereditary principle of succession

by, 345
Ignorance of, regarding the realm

and its needs, 307
Isolation of, 75-6
Judicial interventions of, 302
Legitimacy, principle of, 127, 134,

138, 172, 197, 212, 247-8
Leniency of, to conspirators, 12,

178, 246, 248, 273, 276, 278, 300,

361, 471, 472
Marriage of, restrictions on, 168-9,

324 ».

Mercantile class supporting, 25
Military Regents, 205-6

Emperors, Byzantine (continued]—
Restrictions imposed on, 168, 216,

324 «.

Soldierliness demanded of, 285
Status of, in doubt, 100 ; Justinian's
estimate of, 160 ; later reduction
to negligibility, 485
Empire, Byzantine —
Army of. See Army
Character of, 343-4, 412, 440 ; mod-
ernity of, in sixth century, 356
Church, attitude towards. See

Church

Conflicting interests in, 238
Disaffected classes non-existent in,

157 n.

Feudalism in. See Feudalism
Financial expedients of. See that

heading
Population of, change in, after

750, 144-5
Recuperation power shown by, 24,

Talk bequeathed to, 425
England —
Aristocratic character of, analysed,

Georgian period in, 154, 163
English colony at Cibotus, proposal

as to, 473
Episcopate. See Church, Eastern —

Bishops

Eroticus, Theophilus, 271-2
Erovant I. , 349
Esarhaddon (Sennacherib) , parricides

of, 341, 347

Esdras, Patriarch, 372, 373, 375
Eudocia, daughter of Constantine

IX. ,258

Eudocia Ingerina, 172, 182, 184
Eudocia Macrembolitissa, Empress,
assumes imperial power, 300-1 ;
marriage of, with Romanus
Diogenes, 202, 225-6, 302-3,
456 ; banished to a convent, 304 ;
her dislike of Nicephoritzes, 307 ;
Eastern affairs in reign of, 455
Eunapius cited, u
Eustathius, Captain of the Foreign

Legion, 256
Euprepia, sister of Constantine X.,

283 n.
Euphrosyne, daughter of Constantine

VI., 132
Exarchate, loss of under Constantine

V.,335

Executive v. Exchequer, 272 n.1
Exedarus (Ardashir), 349
Expert, government by, 26, 35 «.
Evagrius cited, 75, 362, 365

FALLMERAYER cited, 479
Farinelli, 189
Feudalism —

Achievements of, for the Empire,
343 »•

INDEX

507

Feudalism (continued) —

Cilician Armenia, in, 474, 478
Fiefs within the Empire in re-
lations of, 428
Implication of term, 342 n.
Prevalence of, in Byzantine Empire

before Crusaders, 412
Sub-infeudation, 359
Vassal states of the Empire in re-
lations of, 354, 357

Financial expedients of the Empire —
Basil I.'s reforms, 180
Leo VI. 's policy, 192
Private wealth, war against, 43-4,

92-3, 146, 151-2, 163
Findlay quoted, 6, 16, 20, 24, 122,
124, 130-1, 142-3, 191, 193-4,
297 n. l ; quoted and criticised,
95-7; cited, 74-7, 89, 114, 116,
170 ; estimate of, 122
Fiscal character of Roman legislation,

146
Fiscal oppression in sixth century,

Follis, remission of, by Marcian, 17
Foreign Legion, captaincy of, 199,

218-19

Foundling hospitals, 117
France —

Bourbon regime in, 157 n.

Bureaucracy of, 53

Governing class in, 31

Kings of, licence permitted to,

270-1

Military impatience of civilian dic-
tation in, 206
Orleans regency, 195-6
Franks-
Alliance of, with Imperialists, 321
Eastern posts of, 446-7 ; disaffec-
tion in, 449

Origin of power of, in Gaul, 327
Freeholders, 148
Frontier defence —
Armenian policy of, 166
Eastern frontier under J ohn Curcuas ,

214-16

John Zimisces' strengthening of, 237
Frontier depopulation , 182
Frost, the Great, 109, 114

GABRAS, Constantine, 480
Gabras, Gregory, 471-2, 479
Gabras, Theodore, Duke of Trebi-

zond, 471-2
Gabrielopulus , 196
Gagic (Cakig), King of Vasparacan,

414-415

Gagic I. , King of Ani, 426
Gagic, King of Kars,452
Gagic, last King of Ani (1042),

430-2,437^,459, 462
Gagic, son of Abbas, 462
Gallienus, Emperor, 168, 352, 403
Gandzac, Emir of, 462
Gandzac, Patriarch of, 463

Ganzac —

Persian defeat near, 367
Turkish capture of (1088), 470
Garidas, John, Captain of the Foreign

Legion, 199, 203

Gaul, origin of Frankish power in, 327
Gelzer cited, 342 n.
Genesius quoted, 129 and n. ; cited,

167 n.2, 193, 408
George, King of Iberia and Abasgia,

427, 429, 434

George II., Caucasian King, 470
George of Taron , 424
George, Prefect of the East, 369
George the Paphlagonian , 261, 265
Georgia (see also Iberia) —
Armenian remnant in, 376
Rebellion in (1022), 429
Georgius of Cyprus cited, 109, 337
Germanicea, 391

Germanus (sixth century), 79, 367
Germanus, Patriarch, 380
Ghassanid Bedawins, 355
Ghevond. See Leo V.
Gibbon cited, 176 n. , 201, 209-10, 357,

476 ; quoted, 294 n. , 473 n. , 486
Gisela (daughter of Pepin), 115
Gitacius (Armenian), 359
Gomechtikin, General, 321, 460
Gongyles, Anastasius, 199
Gongyles, Constantine (914), 199
Gongyles, Constantine the Paphla-
gonian, Admiral of the Fleet,

219, 227
Gontharis, 360
Gordian III., 362
Gordian family, 162
Gorduene, 349, 350
Gorigos, King of Albania, 463, 470
Gorioun, Ardzrounian Prince, 386
Gosselin, 303
Goths, Eastern wars as affecting

struggle with, 355
Gourgenes, King of Abasgia (915),

4i3. 4i4

Gourgenes, King of Iberia, 426-7
Gourgenes (? Stephen), King of Iberia

(sixth century), 358, 359, 364
Greece —

Mainotes in, 213
Sclavonisation of, 326
Greek Church. See Church
Greeks (Byzantines) —

Perfidy of, accepted estimate as to,

186, 198,415, 432,439; solitary

instances of Byzantine duplicity,

248,292,425

Political capacity and limitations of,

108

Gregoras, Senator, 198
Gregory, Bishop of Antioch, 367
Gregory, Bishop of Ephesus, 183
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, cited, 363
Gregory , Duke of Trebizond , 479
Gregory, father of Patriarch Basil,
473

508

INDEX

Gregory, General of the Obsicians,

392
Gregory, ndyurrpos, lord of Betchni,

425, 427,431,438,451
Gregory, fj.6,yi(TTpos, grandson and

great-grandson of, 474, 480
Gregory II., Patriarch, 455
Gregory I. the Great, Pope, 45, 80
Gregory III., Pope, in
Gregory XIII. , Pope, 474
Gregory, Ardzrounian Prince, 386
Gregory, Prince of Taron (898), 411
Gregory the Illuminator, 337, 350
Gregory, son of Musalacius, 398
Gregory the Taronite (990), 251, 425
Gryllus the Pig, 171-2
Gubazes, King of Lazica, 359
Guilds of artisans, 489
Guiscard, Robert, 324, 330
Guzes, John, 361
Gylas (Hungarian), 224

HABIB (" friend of Rome "), 375, 378

Hachte'an, 448

Hadrian, Emperor, 3, 4

Hamazasp, 378, 381

Hamdan, Emir of Aleppo, 226-7

Harith, King of the Ghassanid Bed-

awins, 355
Harran, 480
Harthan, 477
Harun, Governor of Aderbaidjan,

392, 394, 395, 400-1 .
Hassan , 434-5
Hegel quoted, 24, 26, 28, 31
Helen (daughter of Robert Guiscard),

324

Helen, sister of Theophilus, 404

Helena, Empress, daughter of Rom-
anus, 204, 207, 219-20

Helena, sister of Constantine X. ,
283 n.

Heracliads, unpopularity of, 485

Heraclian period —

Clerical influence in, 119-22
Survey of, 82 et seq.

Heraclius I., Emperor, discontinues
" political" bread, 44, 85 ; clerical
influence under, 74, 119 et seq. ,•
official class under, 81, 92 ; local
nobility under, 84, 487; early
years of reign of, 83-6 ; Avar and
Persian invasion in reign of, 82,
109 ; relations of .with Avar Khan,
351 ; African expedition of, 86 ;
successful policy of, in the East,
371 ; Persian triumph of, 90 ; at-
tempt to secure Armenian Con-
formity, 339, 372 ; attempts to save
a Marcionite, 120, 136; character-
istics of, 486-7 ; guileful policy of,
85, 90 ; barbarity of, 120 ; other-
wise mentioned, 7, 365, 485

Heraclius Constantine II., Emperor,

87
Heraclius III., Emperor, 87, 119

Heraclius IV. , Emperor, 90
Heraclius, brother of Absimarus,

101-2

Heretics, intolerant dread of, 135-7
Herve the Norman (Hervey), 303, 445,

448-9
Himerius (Homerius), Admiral, 190,

196, 410

Honi, Patriarch of, 467, 470
Hormisdas, Shah of Persia, 366
Humbertopoulus, 330
Hungarians-
Alliance with, against Symeon, 185
Argyrus family successful against,

224
Romanus I.'s policy regarding,

213-14
Huns —

Cabades restored to his throne by,

Christianising of chiefs of, 357

IASITA (Michael Jasitas), 276, 437-9
Iberia (see also Georgia) —
Connection of, with the Empire

under Romanus III., 434
Justinian's relations with, 357
Kings of, Bagratid, 435
Revolt of, against Justinian II. , 387
Territory claimed by, conceded by

Romanus I., 215-16
Iberians, Nicephorus' bodyguard of,

230
Iconium, Turkish capital transferred

to, 466 n.

Iconoclastic movement —
Constans the pioneer of, 88
Estimate of, 74, 123
Leo III. the beginner of, in
Nature of, 89, 345
Unpopularity of, 113
Iconoclastic period, brief review of, 8
Iconoclasts. See Isaurians
Iconodules, reaction consequent on

victory of (842), 134, 151, 154
Ignatius, Patriarch, 172, 183, 380
Image-worship, restoration of, under
Michael III., 134; reaction con-
sequent on, 151, 154
Impersonality of the State in fifth

century, 10
Imprisonment, 94
Inger, Russian chief, 214
Ingerina, Eudocia, 172, 182, 184
Irene, daughter of King of the Alans,

3°7

Irene, Empress, usurpation by, 127,
139, 225 ; Armeniacs' hostility to,
I25, 340 ; Eunuch-regime under,
126, 189, 287, 393-4 ; conspiracies
against, 392, 398 ; Iconodule
Council (785), 395 ; estimate of
reign of, no; otherwise men-
tioned, 8, 144, 164

Isaac I. (Comnenus), Emperor, up-
bringing of, 294 ; slighted by

INDEX

509

Michael VI. , 290 ; saluted Em-
peror, 244, 291, 450; joined by
Catacalon, 292 ; negotiations
with Imperial envoys, 281, 293;
proclaimed Emperor by the
Senate, 293-4 ; brief reign and
abdication of, 295-6 ; relations
with the Church, 296
Isaac, Exarch, 371
Isaac, Patriarch, 384, 385
Isaac (Sahak), Prince of Paperon,

462
Isaurian dynasty —

Ecclesiastical opposition to, 121-4
Financial success of, 118
Legislation of, repealed by Basilian

Code (900), 163
Methods of, no

Periods of, 98, 106-34, 137 ; annal-
ists of, 108-9
Plutocracy legislated against by,

161
Recovery, general, under, 165-6,

186 '

Redaction of law under, unpopu-
larity of, 181

Taxation under, increase in, 151
Isdigerd, 351

Isdigerd II., King of Persia, 351
Isidorus quoted, 91
Islam, methods and decline of, 440-1
Istibrak (PStauracius), 398
Italy-
Loss of, 113
Separatist movement in, in eighth

century, 111-12
Ivan, son of Liparit, 448

JANISSARIES, 366

Jasitas (lasita), Michael, 276,437-9
Jews-
Persecution of, in eighth century,

Supremacy of, in trade, 158
Job, ruler in Ccele-Syria, 374 n. , 377
John, King of Ani, 429
John Sembat, King of Ani, 430
John XII., Pope, 183, 228
John, chief of the Mardaites, 382
John (eunuch — 698), 101
John (eunuch — 781), 393
John (eunuch) minister of Constantine

X., 279-80

John (palace-eunuch — 1079), 328-9
John (general of Imperialists— 989),

424
John (official in the Hellespont), 54

and n.s

John (Syncellus), 260
John Catholicos, 414 ; cited, 378,

381,413

John of Cappadocia, 37, 38, 40
John of Ephesus cited, 70
John, son of Gagic, 462
John the Deacon, 121, 491
John the Grammarian, Patriarch, 403

John the Paphlagonian (Orphano-
trophus), power of, 260, 266,
268-9 I downfall of, 266-8, 300
John the Patrician (Pitzigaudes), 91,

241, 242, 488
John the Taronite, 472
John Zimisces, Emperor, accession
of, 420-1 ; ecclesiastical policy
of, 159 ; success of, against Sara-
cens, 227 ; relations with Nice-
phorus, 230 ; in command of the
Eastern troops, 230; achieve-
ments of, in the East, 404, 421-2 ;
under influence of Basil the
chamberlain, 232-3; Armenian
bodyguard of, 234 ; settlement of
Bulgaria under, 234-5 ; alliance
made by, with Armenian princes,
235 ; successes against Bagdad,
Damascus, &c. , 236; expansion
of feudalism under, 342 n. ; ill-
ness and death of, 154, 237;
mentioned, 167, 174, 187, 219
Joseph, ruler in Coele-Syria,374«., 377
Justin I. , Emperor, 14, 21 ; relations
of, with Persia, 351 ; policy of,
regarding vassal states, 354
Justin II. , Emperor, provincial policy
of, 23, 58, 73 ; Persian policy of,
362 ; Armenian policy of, 363-4 ;
anecdote of, 68-9 ; speech of, at
adoption of Tiberius Constantine
quoted, 70-2 ; estimate of, 70 ;
cited, 19; otherwise mentioned,
7, 184

Justinian I., Emperor, appeal of,
to his people, 65-6 ; policy of, as
to Senate, 12 ; consulate abo-
lished by, 17 ; internal policy of
54-65 ; fiscal system cf, 355 ;
domestic disorders of his reign,
41-4 ; military enterprise of, 44-
7 ; alleged bribery by, of in-
vaders, 46 ; Persian wars of,
354-5; army policy of, 274;
vassal policy of, 357 ; spread of
Christianity the policy of, 357;
later years of, 19 ; estimate of,
39 n.t 49; Procopius' estimate
of, 40 ; personal power of, 25 ;
quoted — on the imperial r61e,
160 ; Code of, 22, 160 ; Con-
stitutions of. See that heading ;
otherwise mentioned, 7, 38, 149,
153, l63. 339. 343. 4°8, 413, 444~S
Justinian II., Emperor, policy of,
towards official class and church,
QJt 95> 971 Armenian affairs in
reign of, 338, 383; Armenian
policy of, 383, 387-8; trans-
plantation policy of, 493 ; effects
removal of Mardaites, 381-2;
overthrow of (695), 94, 100, 485;
restoration of, 102 , 488 ; cruelties
and death of, 102-3, 112 ; other-
wise mentioned, 7, 386-7

510

INDEX

KARS, cession of, to Rome, 454

Kendroscavi, fortress of, 477

Kesoun, 463, 476, 477

Khatchatour, Duke of Antioch, 452,
460

Khatchic, Governor, 434

Khatchic, Patriarch, 423

Khatchic, Patriarch (nephew of Peter),
438, 451, 454-s

Khatchic- Khoul the Lion, 432

Khazars —

Imperial alliance with, 384
Merwan's repression of, 389
Pillaging by (683) ,38 1

Khazars, Khan of the (651), 375

Khazi (Ghazi), Ahmed (Danishmand),

475 «-2
Khorasan —

Great Sultan in, 466 n.

Seljuk ravages from, 481
Khoutha, Prince of Sassoun, 368
Khtric, Governor of Bergri, 432-3
Kieff affair, analogy from, 15-16
Kilig Arslan II., 466 n.
Korbouga (Carbaran d'Oliferne), 475

and n.1
Kropotkin, Prince, 15

LACHANODRACON, Michael, 115,

392 , 394—6

Ladislas, Bulgarian King, 252, 258
Lambron, fort of, 459, 462
Lamprus, Governor of Melitene,

Land!3

Investment, as, 157

Seizure of, for debt prohibited,
61 «.2

Usury for advances on, 61 n.2
Land tenure and agriculture —

Agricultural changes (eighth, ninth,
and tenth centuries), 143

Assessments for land-tax, Basil's
care regarding, 180-1

Communal villages, 145-8, 150

Constantine VII. 's policy regard-
ing, 221

Kinds of, 145

Leo III.'s reforms regarding,

149-51
Magnates, encroachment of, 147,

I52~3

Officials' estates, 153-4
Power and influence united with

territorial possession, 151, 153
Private estates, 148-51
Sales to strangers forbidden,

147

Soldiers' fiefs, 153
Landed interest, Imperial concern

for, 18

Latifundia, 152
Latin movement eastwards, 303
Laurentius the Lydian, John, cited,
19, 34-9, 41, 53, 64, 68 ; estimate
of, 33-4, 39

Law —

Connotation of term , 27
Exemption from operation of,
general claims to, 76-7, 80

Law of nature, exaltation of, in
Classical State, 5

Lazarus, John ("Abbe" Dubois"),
196-7

Lazi of Colchis, the, 354

Lazica —

Dux appointed ever, 356
Georgian David III. controlling,

472

Loyalty of, to the Empire, 387
Theoctistus' expedition to (843),

407
War with, 356-7.359

Lebeau — quoted, 294 «./ cited, 357

Lecas, 325

Lecapenus, Emperor. -S^RomanusI.

Legitimacy, adoption of principle of,
127, 134, 138, 172, 197, 212,
247-8

Leo I., Emperor, 17, 84, 408

Leo III. (Conon), Emperor, question
as to ancestry of, 382, 388 ; early
experiences of, in the East, 386-
7 ; accession of, 106-7, 494~5 5
financial policy of, 118 ; policy
of, towards the Church, 122-4 ;
agrarian reforms of, 18, 149-51 ;
death of, in ; Ecloffa of, 160,
164 ; achievements of, 98, 108 ;
events of reign of, summarised,
111-12; general recovery dur-
ing reign of, 150; estimate of,
108 ; otherwise mentioned, 8,89,
340, 343, 493

Leo IV., Emperor, proposed alliance
of, with house of Pcpin, 115 ;
Armenian generals of, 392 ; re-
lations of, with artisan guilds, 489;
otherwise mentioned, 126, 400

Leo V. (Ghevond), Emperor, attitude
of, in monk and soldier feud,
132 ; family connections of, 169,
340-1 ; death of, 128 ; otherwise
mentioned, 336, 402, 409

Leo VI. (the Wise), Emperor, uncer-
tain parentage of, 127, 172, 182 ;
relations of, with Bagratid kings,
408-11; Armenian policy of,
410-12 ; well served by Nice-
phorus Phocas, 410; plots against,
186-8 ; appoints Lecapenus High
Admiral, 417; estimate of, 188,
192-3 ; codification of law under,
1 8 1 ; favourites of, 188-91 ; other-
wise mentioned, 153, 191, 197, 215

Leo VIII., Emperor, 228

Leo VI. , Armenian King in Cilicia,

Leo (Ghevond), Armenian King, 480,

481-2

Leo (colleague of Procopius), 186
Leo (irpitrropeaTidptos), 241, 242

INDEX

511

Leo, brother of Aetius, 398

Leo, son of Bardas, 399-400

Leo Diaconus cited, 420

Leo Grammaticus cited, 405

Leo, the Cilician, 44, 481

Leontius, Emperor, styled General of
Hellas, 488 ; effects removal of
the Mardaites, 382 ; overthrows
Justinian, 94, 100-1 ; becomes
Emperor, 384 ; massacred by
Justinian, 112

Lerond. See Leo V. , Emperor

Lewis the Debonnair, 168

Liberalism, claim of, 77

Liberi coloni, 148

Lichudes, Constantine, 279, 293, 296,
441

Liparit (1048), 442-4, 448

Liparit (c. 1090), 470

Local government, Justin's conces-
sion towards, 23, 58, 73

Local usage, 122, 150, 160

Locust plague, 263

Logothetes, office of, 92, 93, 118

Lombards, homage from, to Con-
stantine IV., 90

Longibardipoulos, 311

Longinus, brother of Zeno, 12, 18

Luitprand of Cremona cited, 159,
223, 289

Lycandus theme, 182, 185, 201, 215,
411

Lycanthus, Governor of Lycaonia,
291, 292

MACEDONIA—
Ravages in, 251

Romanus I.'s policy regarding, 213
Sclavonisation of, 326

Macedonian, significance of term,
273, 408

Macedonian faction, 275

Macedonian troops, 291, 313, 315

Magniac (Maniaces), activities of, in
the East, 262, 263, 434; in
Sicily, 265 ; imprisoned, 265 ;
released, 266 ; magister mi li turn
in Italy, 269 ; revolts, 272

Mainotes, 213

Malenus, 174

Maleinus, Eustathius, 242, 244, 428

Malei'nus, Nicephorus, 409

Malek Shah, accession of, 459; Ar-
menian rule of, 464, 469 ; alliance
of, with the Empire, 466 «. , 468 ;
claim of, to the Euxine, 469, 471 ;
conquest of Antioch by, and claim
to Mediterranean Sea, 470 ; death
of, 470-1

Mamigonian clan, 166-7, 351-2 andn,

Mam-kon, 352 n.

Mandzikert, assembly at (651), 377

Manglabites, 210, 211

Maniaces. See Magniac

Mamoutche", Governor of Ani, 462,
463, 469, 472

Mansour, Caliph, 391

Manuel (Armenian general under

Michael I. and Leo V.), 167, 402,

404, 405, 407
Manuel, Prince (Armenian general

under Theophilus), 341
Manuel, brother of Vartan, 363
Manuel, nephew of Basilacius, 323,

460
Manuel, regent for Michael III., 167,

170

Manuel, son of Leo Phocas, 230
Manzikert —

Romanus IV. defeated at (1071),

304, 457

Siege of, second (1053), 447
Marcian, Emperor, 14, 16-17, 21,338
Marcus Aurelius, Emperor, 4
Mardaites, 382
Marinus, father of Theodore, 167 and

«.i

Marinus, Prefect, 36 and ».4, 37, 48
Martina, Empress, 86-7, 225
Martyropolis, 353, 358, 368, 382
Mary, daughter of Alexius, 472, 479
Mary (Irene), daughter of Christopher ,

207, 213

Mary, Empress, 307, 324, 330
Mary, sister of Theodora, 404
Maslema, 106, 494-5
Masoud, 466 «., 483
Masoudi cited, 398
Master of the troops in the Court,

title of, 362
Matthew of Edessa cited, 237, 475 «.,

481
Maurice, Emperor, in the East, 365-7;

policy of, 75 ; failure to restore

order, 78-9 ; murder of, 63, 83,

112; otherwise mentioned, 45,

337. 354, 367. 486
Maxentius, Stephen, 184
Maximin, Emperor, 178
Mediasvajism, characteristics of, 119
Mejej (Mizizius) (sixth century), 361-3
Mejej (Mitius, Mecetius, Mezzetius)

(seventh century), 372, 377, 380
Melias of Lycandus (Melric, Mel,

Mleh), against Bulgarians, 201 ;

left by Ashot at the Roman

Court, 410; founds Lycandus

theme, 182, 185, 411 ; with

Curcuas, 418

Melias, son of preceding, 235 and n.
Melissenus (934), 215
Melissenus, Leo, 246, 251, 466 n.
Melissenus, Nicephorus (Nicephorus

V.), general under Romanus IV.,

457; Turcoman principality of

Rum founded by, 315-16, 327-9 ;

faithful to civilian regime, 318 ;

negotiations of, with Alexius, 331
Melitene —

Chusan's capture of, 391
Curcuas' captures of, 215
Seljuks' sack of, 451

512

INDEX

Melitene, Emir of, 173

Melusianus, 446

Menander cited, 362 ; quoted, 364

Merwan, 389

Merwanidae, 336

Mesopotamia theme, 182, 411

Michael, Count of the Court, 399, 400

Michael, Duke of Sclabinia, 200

Michael I., Emperor, 126-9, J67

Michael II., Emperor, contested
succession of, 403 ; marriage of,
with Euphrosyne, 132 ; estimate
of, 175 ; mentioned, 157 n.

Michael III. , Emp., regency during
minority of, 169-70; death of,
175; character of, 170-2; spend-
thrift habits of, 119 ; estimate of,
176 ; estimate of reign of, 134 ;
otherwise mentioned, 165, 167,
179, 182, 213, 257

Michael IV., Emperor, intrigue of,
with Zoe, 261; claims Ani, 430-1 ;
dealings of, with King of Se baste,
432 ; Armenian homage to, 435 ;
ill -health of, 264; building
schemes of, 266 ; foreign affairs
under, 266 ; adoption of an heir
by, 266-7 1 last days and death of,
267

Michael V., Emperor, at inaugural
ceremony, 264 ; releases Magniac,
265-6 ; downfall of, 268-9 '• esti-
mate of, 267, 269 ; Armenian
activity under, 431

Michael VI. (Stratioticus), Emperor,
position of, 288 ; conspiracy of
Theodosius Monomachus, 289 ;
slights warrior faction, 289-90;
insurgence and failure of
Bryennius, 290 - i ; restores
Bryennius to his command, 291 ;
insurrection of Comnenus, 292-4;
Hervey's revolt against, 448-9 ;
downfall of, 294 ; mentioned,

281,455

Michael VII., Emp., pacifies Varan-
gians, 303 ; proclaimed sole
Emperor, 304; offers terms to
Romanus, 305 ; Eastern policy
of, 458 ; relations of, with
Nicephoritzes, 307 ; pardons
Russell, 309 ; ransoms John
Ducas, 310; treatment of Bryen-
nius, 312 ; relations with Alexius,
317; retirement of, 319, 460;
Archbishop of Ephesus, 324,
460 ; estimate of, 281, 306, 315 ;
nominal extent of dominions of,
459 ; mentioned, 226, 307

Michael Rhangabus, 183

Michael Cyrus cited, 388

Michael the Taronite, 457, 472

Mlhran, 364, 370

Military element. See Army

Miramians, 367

Misimians, 361

Mien—

Development of name, 235 n.
Meaning of name, 421 n.1
Mleh demeslikos, 235 and n., 421-2.

(See also Melias)
Moawiah, Governor of Syria, 375,

377-81
Moderator, Arabian, status of, under

Justinian, 54 «.4

Mohammed, "First of Emirs," 471
Mohammed, Grand Sultan, 466 n.
Mohammed, nephew of Caliph Abdal

Melik, 384, 385
Mohammed, son of Ahmed Khazi,

475 «-2

Monachus, George, quoted, 400
Monasteries —
Revenues of, attempt to restrict,

156
Western and Eastern contrasted,

154-6

Monastic life as penalty, 182
Monks —

Justinian's attitude towards, 64
Revolutionary movements joined

by, 122

Soldiers, feuds with, 132
Monomachus, Constantine. See

Constantine X.

Monomachus, Theodosius, 289
Montanists, persecution of, in eighth

century, in
Morogeorge, Governor of Naupactus,

258

Moses II., Patriarch, 363
Moslemah, son of Caliph Abdal-

melek, 384
Mouschegh (Musel), Alexis, 212,

405-6
Mouschegh (Muscle) Alexius (790),

340, 396

Mouschegh family, 368, 369, 370, 374
Muntasir, Abdallah, 240-1 and n.
Municipal franchise, Justinian's cur-

tailment of, 47-8
Municipal power, monopoly of, with

the rich, 162
Musel. See Mouschegh
Musicus (Mousegh), 188
Mutilation, 163
Myacius, Theodorus, 104-5
Mystakon, John, 366, 367, 368 n.

NAMES, Hellenizing of, 340, 439 «.
Naples, revolt of, under Constantine

VI I., 224
Narses (Armenian Camsarid — 543),

358, 368

Narses the Camsarid (698), 385
Narses, great-grandson of Gregory

474-5

Narses, Italian leader, 253
Narses, Patriarch, 376-8
Narses (under Justinian), 186
National debt, Byzantine prototype
of, 192

INDEX

513

Nationality-
Freedom of Byzantine public service

from conditions of, 184
Spirit of, 23

Neapolitan Government, analogy
from, 48

Neferkert, Emir of (tenth century),
426

Nepherkert, Emir of (eleventh cen-
tury), 461

Nestorians, 338-9

Neumann, C., cited, 297

Nice-
Pretenders' headquarters at, 328
Seljuk capital at, 329, 465
Surrender of (1097), 466 n., 473

Nicephoritzes, influence and mal-
versations of, 307-9 ; exactions
of, 311 ; attempt of, to stop
Botaneiates, 318 ; torture and
death of, 320

Nicephorus I., Em per or, ancestry of,
355 ; efforts of, for national de-
fence, 126, 129 ; Armenian revolt
against, 340 ; relations with Bar-
danes, 398-400 ; eunuch support
°f» 398 ; estimate of, 401 - 2 ;
humanitarian leniency of, 127-8

Nicephorus II. (Phocas), Emperor,
prefect of the East, 219 ; ap-
pointed Commander of the East
(954), 226 ; successes against the
Saracens, 228, 404 ; rivalry with
Bringas, 228-9 • acclaimed Em-
peror, 229 ; takes personal com-
mand of the war, 230 ; murder
ot, 232 ; ecclesiastical policy of,
156, 159 ; unpopularity and poli-
tical errors of, 231 ; estimate of,
156, 232 ; Novels of, cited, 154,
156 ; mentioned, 174, 417, 420

Nicephorus III., Emperor (Nice-
phorus Phocas Botaneiates), fight
of, with Radulf, 293 ; ransomed
by Constantine XL , 299 ; dis-
order amongst troops of, 456 ;
suitor for Eudocia, 301 ; dis-
loyalty of, to John Ducas, 309 ;
insurrection of, as Nicephorus
III., 314, 318-20, 460; alliance
with Turks against, 460 ; nego-
tiations with Bryennius, 320-1 ;
honours Bryennius, 322 ; help-
less position of, 322, 325, 328 ;
relations with Basilacius, 323 ;
marries wife of Michael VII.,
307, 324 ; immures Constantine
XII,, 325 ; resigns and takes the
tonsure, 331-2 ; estimate of, 320,
328

Nicephorus ' ' the fourth. ' ' See Nice-
phorus III. (Botaneiates)

Nicephorus V. See Melissenus

Nicephorus, Caesar, 396

Nicephorus, Patriarch, Leo V.'s
treatment of, 132 ; quoted, 93,
VOL. II.

95, 101, 489, 490, 495; estimate
of, 108-9, 116; source of history
by, 491

Nicephorus (retired priest), 445

Nicephorus Bryennius. See Bry-
ennius

Nicetas (admiral), 184

Nicetas (chamberlain), 182, 184

Nicetas, Duke, in Iberia, 256

Nicetas (eunuch), 394, 398

Nicetas (false coiner), 261

Nicetas (patrician and eunuch), 234

Nicetas (under Romanus I.), 211

Nicholas (eunuch), 269

Nicolas (great chamberlain of Con-
stantine XL), 256

Nicolas, Patriarch, 196, 198

Nika riots, 25, 37, 42

Nisibis, Roman surrender of, 350

Nobilissimus, title of, 267

Nobility, State service as basis of,
9. 27-8

Nomenclature, adaptation of, to
classical etymology, 340, 439 n.

Normans —

Armenians compared with, 448-9
English refugees from, proposed
colony of, at Cibotus, 473

Norse Princes in Russia, 231-4

Novels of Justinian. See Constitutions

OBSICIANS—

Armeniacs' and Anatolics' triumph

over, 494-5

Artavasdus supported by, 125
Importance of, 485, 487
Philippicus deposed by, 489-90
Theodosius unsupported by, 492
Turbulence of, 104-6, 113, 491
Otherwise mentioned, 128, 487
Ochin , Prince of Lambron and Duke
of Tarsus, 459, 462, 469, 474, 476
Ocom, 448
Octagon Library, burning of (730),

109, in
Octavianus, 24
Office, sale of, 157 n.
Official class. See Civil Service
Oligarchy under formula of abso-
lutism, 25
Opsarus, John, 291
Orphanotrophus, John. See John the

Paphlagonian

Orthodoxy, victory of, over icono-
clasm, laxity and reaction con-
sequent on, 134, 151, 154, 171
Otchopentir, John and Gabriel, sons

of, 426

Othman, 384, 388
Otho I., Emperor, 228
Otto II., Emperor, 169 n.
Otto III., Emperor, 258
Oursel. See Russell

PAGURIAN (Bacouran), 330, 468
Pacurius, 359

2 K

514

INDEX

Palace government, 140-2

Palace officials joined with soldiers,
186

Palaeologus, George, 318, 328-9

Palaeologus, Nicephorus, 310

iravvwepatpaffTos, title of, 472

Paperon, fortress of, 459, 462

Pappus (Bab), 361

Parisos in Onti, 462

Parthia —

Armenian relations with, 349
Hostilities of, with the Empire, 357

Pasagnathes, 377-8

Paschal chronicle cited, 85

Patriarchs —

Imperial relations with, 122, 155
Influential position of, under the
regency of Theophano, 122, 228
Secular and Imperial, in Basilian
period, 183

Patricius, Emperor, 12

Patronate, early Roman, 53

Patzinaks —
Bryennians1 relations with, 314-15,

321

Chersonese threatened by, 407
Defection of, from Constantine X. ,

444
Devastation by (eleventh century),

325

Diogenes' success against, 258
Mcesia overrun by, 263
Romanus' success against, 301
Tat's activities, 312
Terror inspired by, 471
Victory of (1050), 445
Zoe's alliance with, 200-2

Paul, Emperor of Russia (1801), 175

Paul the Deacon cited , 380

Paul the Orphanotrophos, 210

Paulicians —

Defeat of, at Tephrice, 181
Nicephorus I.'s relations with, 402
Outrages by (eleventh century), 325
Persecutions of, 135-7, 173
Philippopolis, at, 469, 472
Transplantations of, 391
Views of, 151

Pepin, Constantine V.'s overture to,

"5
Peranes, son of King Gourgenes, 358,

359

Percrin, Emirate of, 264

Persarmenia —

Government of, altered (428), 351
Persian rule and persecutions in,

362-3

Rival claimants to, 365-7
Status of (385), 350
Persia-
Armenian hostilities with, 346
Armenian sphere of, 377; policy

regarding, 338-9
Hostilities with the Empire (sixth

century), 353-5, 364-70
Roman subsidies paid to, 353, 355

Persian troops at Sinope, 133-4, 166

Persecution in Roman Empire (300),
337

Personal monarchy —

Recovery due to resumption of,

under Isaurians, 117-18
Restoration of, under Leo, 109-10

Personal will of ruler, subordination
of, to law of State, 5, 6, 13-14,
16, 21, 26

Peter, Count of Obsicians , 397

Peter, King of Bulgarians, 207, 213,
232

Peter, Patriarch, 429, 438

Petra, siege of (550), 361

Petronas, 173

Pharasmanes, Commander at Hiero-
polis, 457

Pharasmanes, Governor of the Iron
Fortress, 387

Phatloun, Emir of Ani, 459

Phatloun, grandson of first Emir,
470

Phazes, Iberian Prince, 358, 359

Philadelphia, Roman garrison in, 480

Philaret, Duke of Antioch, 461, 466-7,
470

Philip II. , King of Spain, 40 n.

Philippicus, brother-in-iaw of Mau-
rice, 366, 367

Philippicus, Emperor (Vardan, Bar-
danes, Bardanitzes), unsuccess-
ful rising by, 102 ; assumes the
purple, 103 ; saluted Emperor,
488 ; forms settlement in Meli-
tene, 388 ; blinded and deposed,
104, 489 ; characteristics of, 103,
340, 490 ; mentioned, 112, 341

Phocas, Emperor, elected by the
troops, 369 ; reign and estimate
of, 80 ; barbarity of, 120 ; other-
wise mentioned, 83, 109, 112,485,
487

Phocas, Bardas (Caesar), against the
Bulgarians, 201 ; against Rus-
sians, 214 ; Domestic of the
Schools, 219 ; named Caesar,
230 ; recalled against Sclerus,
242-3 ; revolt of, against Basil II. ,
244-6 ; death of, 246 ; greed of,
226-7

Phocas, Bardas (patrician), 257

Phocas, Bardas, son of Leo, 233, 234

Phocas, Constantine, 219, 226

Phocas, Leo, Commander against
Bulgarians, 201-4 I Governor of
Cappadocia, 219, 226 ; General
of the West, 228; Curopalat,
230 ; banished to Lesbos, 233 ;
conspiracies and penalty of, 234

Phocas, Leo (eunuch), 230-1

Phocas, Nicephorus, Emperor. See
Nicephorus II., Emperor

Phocas, Nicephorus, grandfather of
the Emperor and Governor of
Lydia, 184-5, 4XO

INDEX

515

Phocas, Nicephorus, son of pre-
tender Bardas, 248, 429

Phocas, Nicephorus, son of Leo, 233,
234, 246

Phocas, Peter, 233, 239, 240, 242

Phocas, family, 226, 410

Photius, Patriarch, 172, 183, 184,400

Phrygians, Armenian affinity with,
347 n.1

Pinzarich, Emir of Tripoli, 262, 263

Pitzigaudes (John the Patrician), 91

Plague, the Great (eighth century),
114, 144

Plato's political theories, application
pf, 352-3

Plotmus, 352

Pobyedonestcheff, M., cited, 15, 121

Political interest restricted to per-
sonalities, 76-7, 82-3

Polyeuctus, 228-30

Popular control, no demand for, in
sixth century, 20-22

Population of Byzantine Empire,
change in, after 750, 144-5

Pouzan, 469, 471

Praetors, public demands on, 17

Praetorship, Justinian's reform of,

55 »-2

Precedent-
Imperial respect for, 13, 22
Justin's reforms thwarted by, 71-2
Prefecture, abasement of, 34-8
Prerogative, senatorial attitude to-
wards, 76, 86
Price quoted, 67
Prince's Isle, 268, 305
Priscus, 84, 85, 90, 366
Prisons, opening of, by conspirators,

289, 319, 488

Private interest, claims of, to super-
sede law, 77
Private wealth —

Burdens imposed on, 146, 151-2,

162

Isaurian legislation regarding, 161
Official raids on, 43, 92, 163
Revival of, under Isaurians, 165-6
Privileged classes, evils of, 67-8
Procopius cited, 19, 228, 358 «., 359 ;
Anecdota of, cited, 39-48 ; esti-
mate of, 33, 39-41
Procopius the 7r/)WTO/3eoTid/>to$, 186
Procurators thwarting Governors,

272 n.1

7r/)6e5/3os, title of, 256
Promotion, rules of, disregarded by

Leo VI., 193
Pronunciamen tos —

Palace-intrigue replacing, 179
Period of, close of, 134
Provincial governors —
Duties of, defined by Justinian, 57

and n.1

Misdemeanours of, 55-6 and n.1
Perambulations of, prohibited,

Provincial government, Roman,
changes in, 478-9

Prusianus, son of King Ladislas,
258, 260, 442

Psellus, relations of , with Constantine
X., 280; envoy to Comnenus,
293 ; position of, 306 ; estimate
of, 280-1, 297 nn.; cited, 249,
254-5. 260, 275 «., 277, 279,
282-4, 289 and n., 297 nn., 305 ;
otherwise mentioned, 36 n.3, 303

343 »•

Pulchas, 468, 471

Pulcheria, Emperor, n, 14, 44, 139
Punishments, barbarous, 116-17, I29~

30, 188

RACE cleavage, 124-5

Radulf, 293

Radulph (Randolph), 303

Rambaud cited, 226

Rank, exemption from liabilities

claimed by, 7, 9
Ravenna, capture of, 114
Regency —
Abeyance of, under Constantine

VII., 218
Importance of, in ninth and tenth

centuries, 138-9
Regents, popular attitude towards,

209

Representative bodies, common char-
acteristics of, 78-9
Retrenchment, Imperial efforts for,

17-19
Reuben, King in Cilician Armenia,

463, 464, 472, 474
Reversions, purchase of, from the

State, 157 «.
Revolutions—
(695), 94-5, too
(713), 104-5
(716), 105
(718), 706-7
(820), 128-31
Revolutions, Byzantine, character of,

293. 294

Rey in Hyrcania, 367
Rhedestus, wheat corner at, 308, 314
Roman Catholic priesthood, analogy

from, 26
Roman law —
Equitable administration of, under

Basil, 180
Individualist and humanitarian

character of, 145, 159-60
Local usage superseding, 122, 150,

1 60

Treason severely punished by, 160
Roman legislation , fiscal character of,

146
Roman society, disappearance of

plutocratic basis of, 161
Romanus I. (Lecapenus), Emperor,
Admiral of the Fleet, 201-2, 417 ;
favoured by Zoe, 203 ; created

516

INDEX

Romanus I. (continued) —

/3a<nXeo7rdrw/j, 204 ; accession as
Emperor, 205 ; Armenian policy
of, 414 ; agrarian policy of, 146,
154, 158 ; diplomacy with the
Saracens, 212-13; conciliatory
foreign policy of, 213-16 ; demo-
cratic sympathies of, 216-17;
relations of, with Curcuas, 419 ;
concessions of, to Moslems, 416 ;
conspiracies against, 210 ; fall of,
211 ; death of, 219 ; estimate
of, 208, 216-17 ; genealogical
table of family of, 207 ; period
of, 194 ; Novels of, cited, 154 ;
mentioned, 182, 291

Romanus II., Emperor, accession of,
224 ; estimate and death of, 225,
227 ; Novels of, cited, 154

Romanus III. (Argyrus), Emperor,
marriage of, with Zoe, 259 ; fiscal
policy of, 146, 259-60 ; reverse
of, in the East, 261-2 ; building
mania of, 263 ; Armenian sym-
pathies of, 433; ill-health of,
264 ; death of, 209 ; estimate of
reign of, 263-4

Romanus IV. (Diogenes), Emperor,
relations of, with Nicephoritzes,
307 ; disgrace and sudden eleva-
tion of, 301-2, 417 ; marriage
with Eudocia, 226, 301, 456;
mixed troops of, 303 ; campaigns
of, in the East, 457-8 ; ruffles
Armenian spirit, 458 ; defeated
at Manzikert and after, 304-5 ;
blinding and death of, 305, 342 ;
estimate of, 306

Romanus, brother of Scleraena, 272

Romanus, ? grandson of Romanus
Lecapenus, 237

Ruffinus, 35, 38

Rum, Sultanate of —
Difficulties of (1106-12), 480
Founding of, 316, 327-9
Revival of kingdom of (1175),

475 «-2

Soliman Viceroy of, 466
Russell of Balliol (Oursel), rising of,
308-11, 459; success against
Bryennians, 314; status of, 449;
? poisoned by Nicephoritzes, 320 ;
mentioned, 303
Russia —
Byzantine alliance with, against

Bulgarians, 231-2
Invasion of (941), 214
Mirs of, 146
Russia (modern) —
Armenian Church protected by,

338

Autocracy of, 15-16, 22, 76
Bureaucracy of, 53
Church and Court influence in, 235
Elizabethan regime in, 163
Trade in, foreign control of, 157

Russians —

Anemas' success against, 228
Chersonese threatened by, 407
Defeats of, at Dristra, 234
Georgian quarrel with, 426
Relations of, with the Empire at
end of tenth century, 237

SACELLARIUS —

Derivation of term, 121

Office of, 92-3

Sahak, Prince of Handzith, 425
Sahak (Isaac), Prince of Paperon, 462
Sahour, Prince of the Andsevatsians,

374

S. Gregory of Narec, 423-4
Saint Martin cited, 348, 408
St. Narses of Lambrdn, 469
St. Sophia as asylum, 319, 330
Saisan, 466 «. , 480, 482-3
Salonica, capture of, under Leo VI.,

274

Samaria, capitulation of (821), 130
Samaritan revolt, 42, 62
Samaritan senators, 64
Samonas the Saracen, 187-91
Samuel (Bulgarian leader), 251-2,

294, 424-5

Samuel Alusianus, Prince of Bul-
garia, 303
Samuel of Ani, cited, 321, 429, 470;

quoted, 459

Samukh, 291, 292, 449, 453, 454
Sangarius River, battle near, 308-9
Sapor, general (1016), 427, 431
Sapor the Persian-born, 379-80
Saracens (see also Arabs) —
Armenia under influence of (650),

Asia Minor at the mercy of (705-

n), 102

Byzantine subjects tendering vas-
salage to, 1 06, 182
Cyprus in occupation of, 185
Hostilities between the Empire

and —

Byzantine successes — (718), in
(tenth century), 227, 230 ;
(under Constantine IX.), 258
Conon's activities, 387
Naval expeditions under Basil,

181
Romanus III.'s defeat (1030),

261-2

Saracen raiding — (sixth century),
365 (early eighth century),
103, 106 ; (eleventh century),
266 ; annual slave raids, 393
Leo III. acclaimed by, 494
Persians in alliance with (529) , 354-5
Religious feud in the empire con-
ducive to success of, 123
Samonas the court favourite, 187-91
Spain, in, 376

Tarsus priest on side of, 226
Zoe's peace with, 199, 204

INDEX

517

Saraces, 240

Sardou's Rabagas cited, 356

SargisrVestes, 430-1, 437

Sassanid dynasty, Arsacid hostility

against, 337, 346
Sathas, Constantino, cited, 399
Sclavonic strain, increase in, under

Constantine V. , 117
Sclerasna, 270-1, 273
Sclerus, Bardas, success of, against
the Russians, 234 ; revolt of
(976), 238-43, 423-4; relations
with the Caliph, 244; with the
revolted Phocas, 245 ; released,
246
Sclerus, Basil (son of Romanus),

257-8, 260

Sclerus, Constantine, 242
Sclerus, Nicetas, 184
Sclerus, Romanus (son of Bardas),

239, 242, 245, 246
Sclerus, Romanus (1056), 292
Schismatic disaffection in sixth cen-
tury, 42

Schlosser cited, 116
Schlumberger cited, 226; estimate

of, 423 n.
Sclavinia, 486
Scylitzes cited, 70
Scymnia, 359
Sebaste, battle of, 383
Sebastophorus, title of, 271 ».2
S^Scurros, title cf, 324
De^aororaTOJ, title of, 468
Seleucid monarchy, 349
Seljuks—

Alexius' successes against, 465, 481

Alliances of, with the Empire or

Armenia, 316, 318, 321, 327, 448,

449. 452, 460, 461, 467

Bryennius captured by, in battle of

Calabrya, 321-2
Cilician Armenians at war with

(1107), 477
Comnenian success against (1057),

297 «.i

Constantine XII. sent against, 325
Feuds among, 466 n. , 467-8, 473 n.
Gradual penetration of, into Asia

Minor, 310, 326-7
Indifference of, to religious forms,

469

Kingdoms of —
Characteristics of, 466 n.
Situation of, as an enclave, 467
Lesser Asia desolated by (early

twelfth century), 482
Manzikert besieged by, a second

time, 447

Melitene sacked by (1058), 451
Methods of, 451
Mildness of rule of, 459, 469
Name of, imposed upon Roman

territory, 465

Origin of, traditions as to, 347 n.z
Position of, among Turks, 327

VOL. II.

Seljuks (continued)—

Possessions of (eleventh century),

466 and n.
Quiescence of, in Michael VII. 's

reign, 315-16
Rum, in. See Rum.
Theodora's reign, Eastern inroads

during, 447-8

Vasparacan invaded by (1016), 427
Western migrations of, irresistible,

463-4

Sembat I. King of Armenia, 413
Sembat, brother of Basil I., 408
Sembat, brother of Thornic, 415-16
Sembat, Governor of Edessa, 467
Sembat, son of Ashot I., 411
Sembat, son of Leo V., 402-3
Sembat, son of Vahan, 371, 372
Sembat, son of Varazdirot, 376, 378
Sembat, son-in-law of Regent Bardas,

409
Sembat the Bagratid (d. 601), 367,

368, 370
Sembat the Bagratid, brother of

Ashot (698), 381, 383-6
Sembat (Symbatius), 174
Semiramis legend, 348
Sempad (Simbat, Symbatios), revolt

of (seventh century), 340
Senate —

Basil I., attitude towards, 178-9
Claims of, to privileged position,

76-7

Composition of (285-337), 6
Continuity of policy assured by, 18
Detachment of members of, 162-3
Finlay's estimate of, criticised,

96-7
Functions of—

Advisory and examining, n
Constans' definition of, 87-8
Curtailment of, 141
Judicial, 12
Liturgical, 17

Imperial agents at feud with, 5
Impotence of, under Leontius and

two following reigns, 488-9
Justinian's attitude towards, 47, 64
Leo III.'s accession approved by,

494-5

Nicephorus II., relations with, 229

Opposition by, to central authority,
67-8

Powers of. See sub-heading Func-
tions of

Prestige of, renewed under Hera-
clius, 8x, 86

Revival of, under Michael III.,

I34-S
Treasury work withdrawn from, by

Michael VI., 288
Senators (official class), 5, 7, 8
Sennacherib, King of Vasparacan,

248, 426-9

Sennacherib (Esarhaddon), parricides
of, 34L 347

2 K 2

518

INDEX

Serbs-
Revolt of, against Michael VII.,

311

Vassalage of, to the Empire, 213

Sergius, Magister militum, 379-80

Sergius, Patriarch, 86, 379

Servia, revolt of, against Michael IV. ,
266

Severus Alexander, Emperor, 3, 90

Scylitza (Cedrenus), quoted, 391, 403

Shalmanezer II. , 348 n.

Shalmanezer III., 348 n.

Shogun system, 127, 133, 207, 345,
422, 428

Sicily-
Alliance with, under Michael IV,

266

Loss of, under Michael IV. , 265-6
Saracen acquisition of (827), 403

Silcntiarius , title of, 359

Simony —
Justinian's abolition of, 56 and

nn.z, s
Legal fiction of, 30

Sinecures, purchase of, 157 n.

Singara, Roman surrender of, 350

Sinjar, 466 n.

Sisarban, battle near, 367

Sisinnius (eighth century), 114

Sisinnius (tenth century), 224

Sitas, 368

Sittas, 354, 356

Slar-Khorasan, the, 452-4

Slave-armies, policy of, 366

Slavs-
Basil I.'s policy as to, 181
Constantine V.

defeated by (760),

114

Incursion of, effects of, 160
Romanus I.'s policy regarding, 213

Smoke tax, 235

Socialism, 352-3

Socialist revolution (820), 128-31

Solacon, battle of, 366

Soliman I. , Sultan , alliance of, with the
Empire, 318, 321, 327, 460 ; con-
quests of, 466 ; secures all Asiatic
provinces, 329 ; death of, 475 w.2

Soothsaying, 409

Sophen&, 349

Spain —

Gothic remnant in , 376
Loss of, to the Empire, 90-1
Palace influence in, after Philip II.,

188
Visigothic power in, origin of, 327

Spondylas, Duke of Antioch,256, 261

State control —

Individualist enterprise compared

with, 161-2
Justification for, 62

State monopoly —
Church as counterpoise to, 124,

ISS. 164-5
Dangers of, 165
State service. See Civil service

Statesmen, Byzantine, compared with

English, 308
Stauracius (895), 188
Stauracius (eunuch), 395-7
Stephanus, Patriarch (870-93), 182,

183
Stephen, Albanian Patriarch (1082),

463
Stephen, brother-in-law of John

Orphan otrophus, 265
Stephen, Governor of Vasparacan,

441

Stephen, King of Iberia, 364
Stephen, Master of the Palace, 197,

210

Stephen, son of Romanus I., 208,

211, 212, 219

Stephen the Persian, 91-3
Stephen the Sebastophorus, 272-3
Stoicism, equity ideal of, 4
Strabospondyles, Leo, 290, 293
Stratioticus. See Michael VI.
Studium, monastery of, 260, 294,

3i9

Stylianus, Tzaoutzes, 187-8
Sub-infeudation, 359
Suidas, quoted, 93
Suleiman. See Soliman
Sultan, application of title, 466 n.
Surena (571), 363
Surena (628), 372
Surnames, gradual formation of,

184 «., 235 «.
Suzerainty of the Empire, vassal

states under, 354, 357
Swania, 359, 362
Syce, Imperial defeat at, 115
Symeon, cited, 199
Symeon, Captain of the Night Watch

under Constantine IX., 256,

259
Symeon, Joint Commander of the

Foreign Legion, 203
Symeon, King of Bulgaria (893-927),

185, 196, 198, 200, 202, 212-13
Synesius cited, 47
Synnadenus, 330
Syria-
John Zimisces' successes in, 236
Pashaliks of, made tributary by

Nicephorus, 230
Syriac chronicler, anonymous, cited,

374 «•

TACITUS cited, 196, 338, 349 ; quoted,

362

Tadjat, 392,433
Tailu, 466 «. , 475 ».2
Tancred, 476, 477, 480
Tarchaniotes, Basil, 293, 313, 321
Taron—

Independence of, 370-2

Mamigonian settlement in, 352 «.

Ravaging of, 358, 365, 374

Submission of, to the Empire,
415-16

INDEX

519

Tarsus-
Abel- Kharp's acquisition of, 435
Imperial connection with (end of

eleventh century), 476
Saracen fleet from, defeated, 227
Story of unfrocked priest near, 226

Tarsus, Emir of, raiding by, 181

Tat, 312

Taticius (? Tadjat), 468

Tatzates, General of the Buccella-
rians, 392, 394, 395

Taxation —

Collection of taxes, Justinian's pro-
vision regarding, 43-4, 65
Isaurian period, increase in, 151
Rich, of the, 146, 147, 151-2, 162
Smoke tax, 235

Tazates, 210-11

Tchamtchian cited, 368 ».

Tchemehkik, meaning of, 420

Ten-shahpour, 363

Tephrice (Paulician stronghold), 410

Terbelis, King of Bulgarians, 102,
103, 112, 488

Thecla, sister of Michael III., 168,
169, 172, 182

Thematic system, 478; Leo III.'s
dealings with, no

Theoctistus (chief minister of Michael
III.), 170,407

Theoctistus (1030), 262, 263

Theodora I., 37, 41, 193, 360

Theodora II., Empress (wife of
Theophilus), family of, 166-7,
169, 404 ; makes her peace with
the Church, 134, 164 ; regency
of, 135, 225, 287 ; wealth left by,
165 , 176 ; retirement of, 170

Theodora III., Empress, declines
marriage with Roman us, 259 ;
proclaimed Joint-Empress, 268 ;
joint rule of, with Zoe, 269 ; re-
tires to her convent, 269 ; resides
in the palace, 270 ; emerges on
death of Constantine X. , 280 ;
administration, 287 ; eunuch-
re"gime under, 189; Armenian
policy of, 446 ; Eastern events
in reign of, 447 et seq. ; cashiers
Bryennius, 291 ; otherwise men-
tioned, 258, 275 «.

Theodore, brother of Heraclius I.,
373-4

Theodore (eunuch — 782), 394

Theodore (eunuch — 1057), 292

Theodore (Thoros), King in Cilician
Armenia, 471-3 and n., 477, 481

Theodore, Prince of the Resch-
dounians, 373-6, 378

Theodore the Santabarene, 182, 183,
187

Theodorus (Joint-Commander of the
Foreign Legion), 203

Theodorus (Sacellarius), 92, 373

Theodorus (tutor of Constantine
VII.), 203, 205

Theodosian Code, value of, 16, 22
Theodosiopolis, 215, 353, 358 «., 391,

416

Theodosius I., Emperor, 20, 350, 362
Theodosius II., Emperor, civil service
in reign of, 5 ; New University
of, n ; Armenian war under,
351 ; otherwise mentioned, 7, 9,
14, 38 «., 139, 336, 339
Theodosius III., Emperor, accession
of, 105, 491-2 ; Leo's contempt
for, 494 ; fall of, 106, 492 ; esti-
mate of reign of, 106 ; mentioned,
112, 119

Theodotus, ex- Abbot, 92, 93
Theodulus of Synnada, 324 «., 330
Theophanes, source of writings of,
491 ; quoted, 70, 89-90, 91, 101,
398, 400, 489-91. 494-5? cited,
380, 388 ; continuators of , quoted,
129, 167 and n.z, 184 n., 193,
405 ; estimate of, 109, 116, 280
Theophano, Empress, regency of,
225 ; slighted by the Senate, 229 ;
second marriage of, 230, 287 ;
neglected by Nicephorus, 231 ;
recalled (976), 239 ; charges
against, 219 and n.
Theophano, Empress (wife of Otto

II.), 169 ».

Theophilus, Emperor, marriage of,
1 66, 404 ; Manuel's relations
with, 167, 405 ; revolt against,
133-4 ; genealogy of family ob-
taining chief places under, 169 ;
wealth left by, 165 ; estimate of,
175 ; otherwise mentioned, 69,
172, 181, 182, 193, 341
Theophilus of Byzantium cited, 364
Theophobus, 166, 374, 404-7, 469
Theophylact (finance-official), 271
Theophylact, kinsman of Lecapenus,

415

Theophylact, Patriarch, 182, 183 ; esti-
mate of, 155 ; cited, 71-2, 363, 370

Theophylact the Unbearable, father
of Lecapenus, 185 n., 201, 417

Thomas, Patriarch, 92

Thomas, son of Mousmar, 401, 403

Thomas the Slav, 127, 129

Thornic (930), 415

Thornic (Tornicius), Leo, 451, 461 ;
rebellion of, 273-7, 291, 293

Thoros (Theodore), King in Cilician
Armenia, 471-3, 477. 481

Thothos, 436

Thrace-
Bulgarian ravages in, 251
Mardaites transplanted to, 382
Romanus I.'s policy regarding, 213

Tiberius I. , Emperor, 13

Tiberius II. (Constantine), Emperor,
Justin's speech at adoption of,
70-2 ; policy of, 72, 75 ; negotia-
tions with Chosroes, 364, 365 ;
mentioned, 45, 486

520

INDEX

Tiberius III. (Apsimar), Emperor,
army reorganisation by, 118-19;
Mardaites transplanted by, 382 ;
estimate of, 101, 105

Tiberius IV. , Emperor, 90

Tiberius V., Emperor, 112

Tiberius (Emperor in Sicily), in

Tiglath Pileser, 348 and n.

Tigranes (Dikran), 348, 349

Tiridates, King of Armenia, 352 ».,
362, 408 ; conversion of, to
Christianity, 337, 345-6

Tornicius. See Thornic

Togrul, 444, 447, 448, 453

Toleration, absence of, in ninth cen-
tury, 130-1, 135-7

Totemism, 196

Toukhars, 384

Toutoush, 466 »., 467-8, 470-1,

475 »-2

Traitors-
Leniency shown towards, by Byzan-
tine Emperors, 12, 178, 246,
248, 273, 276, 278, 300, 361,
471,472

Penalties against, under Roman
law, 160

Trajan, Emperor, 35 ».i

Transitional nature of sixth century,

45. 49
Transplantation of communities, 144,

149, 364, 382, 388, 391, 424, 493
Trebizond, Duchy of, 471-2
Trefoil family, 398
Tripoli, Byzantine relations with,

262, 263, 266
Troglita, John, 361
Tsin-Hwang-Ti, Emperor of China,

109

Turkey —

Name, origin of, 465
Trade in, foreign control of, 157
Turks. See Seljuks
Tutach, 310-11
Tzanni, 356, 361-2
Tzath, King of the Lazi, 354
Tzimisces. See John Zimisces
Tzophk (Dzophk), fortress of, 474, 480

URARTU (Ararat), 348, 376
Uzes, 299, 303, 314, 321

VAHAN of Taron (tenth century), 416
Vahan(err. Manuel) (Mamigonian —

seventh century), 372, 374
Vahan, Prince, son of Sembat, 374
Vahan the Mamigonian, Prince (fifth

century), 352, 363
Vahan the Wolf, Prince of Taron

(605), 370-1

Vahanic, Patriarch , 420, 422
Vahca, fortress of, 474
Vahran. See Varanes
Vakhtang, 371, 372
Val-arsaces, King of Armenia, 349
Valens, 327

Valentinian I., Emperor, 120, 163

Valerian, Emperor, 350

Varanes (Vahran, Bahram), General-
issimo of Armenia, 428, 431,
439-40

Varanes II., 351

Varangians —

Eastern posts of, 446-7
Mutiny of, against Romanus IV.,
302-3 ; against Nicephorus
III., 322

Varazdirot (son of Sembat), 368,
372, 376

Vard (Bardas) (571), 363

Vard (Bardas), son of Armenian
commander-in-chief, 378, 381

Vardan (634), 373

Vardan, commander of Armeniacs
(772), 39.1-2

Vardan (Philippicus). See Philippicus

Vardar (Axius), battle near, 323

Vardariots, 468

Vartan, 363, 364

Vasak, Duke of Antioch, son of
Gregory ndyurrpos, 452, 461

Vasak of Betchni, father of Gregory
ndyiffTpos, 427

Vasilatzes. See Basilacius

Vasparacania —
Arzrunian family in, 336
Imperial alliances with, 199, 235
Seljuks resisted in (1016), 427
Seljukian pillage of (1048), 441
Supremacy of, 412
Surrender of, to Rome, 428

Venality of office, 28, 30

Verina, 12

Vested interests, 180

Vestes, meaning of title, 430 n.

Vicars, Justinian's abolition of, 56
and n.3

Village communities, 145-8, 150

Villeins, 148

Vitalian, 12, 25, 85

Vitiges, Gothic King, 355

Vizierate, necessity for (eleventh cen-
tury), 306-7

Vladimir, 234

WAGANCHI, 352

Wages of artisans, State interference

regarding, 61-2
Warfare, Byzantine, feudal character

of, 314, 325-6
Weapons. See Arms
Wheat manipulators, 308
Wilamowitz-Mollendorf cited, 346
William of Tyre cited, 476

XIPHIAS, Nicephorus, 248, 252, 260
Xiphilin cited, 176

ZENO, Emperor, 12, 14, 18, 84
Zimisces. See John Zimisces
Zoe I., Empress (daughter ofTzaout-
zes Stylianus), 185, 187, 188

INDEX

521

Zoe, Empress (daughter of Constan-
tine XI.), neglected by her uncle,

258 ; marriage of, with Romanus,

259 ; intrigue of, with Michael
IV., 261 ; hasty marriage with
him, 265 ; ill-health of husbands
of, 264 ; consents to adoption of
an heir, 267; disgraced and re-
instated with Theodora, 268 ;
joint rule of, with Theodora,
269 ; marriage with Constantine
Monomachus, 270 ; death of,
278 ; estimate of, 282

Zoe, Empress (mother of Constantine

VII.), banishment of, by Alex-
ander, 196 ; recall and sagacious
administration of, 198-200, 225,
287, 413 ; policy of, 253 ; peace
with the Saracens, 199, 204 ;
spares Lecapenus, 202 ; attitude
of, towards Phocas family, 203 ;
reported attempt of, against
Romanus, 204; expulsion of, to
convent, 205 ; otherwise men-
tioned, 139, 141, 227
Zoe, sister of Constantine XII., 317
Zonaras, quoted, 68-9, 93-4, 95, 452,
489-92; cited, 90, 109, 391

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